. 


iBilsillilHli 


THE  WHOLE  TRUTH  ABOUT 
MEXICO 


WHOLE  TRUTH 

ABOUT    MEXICO 

PRESIDENT  WILSON'S 
RESPONSIBILITY 


BY 

FRANCISCO  BULNES 


AUTHORIZED  TRANSLATION  BY 
DORA  SCOTT 


M.    BULNES    BOOK    COMPANY 

810  BROADWAY 

NEW  YORK 

1916 


COPYRIGHT,  1916,  BY  MARIO  M.  BULNES 


[Printed  in  the  United  States  of  America] 


Bancroft  Ubrar&UTHOR>s  BIOGRAPHY 

°|  432 

Francisco  Bulnes,  Civil  and  Mining  Engineer,  Chemist 
and  Bacteriologist;  Representative  and  Senator  in  the  Mex- 
ican Congress  for  thirty  years;  Chairman  at  various  times 
of  the  Senate  and  the  House  of  Representatives;  Member 
of  the  Commission  that  drew  up  the  first  plan  of  the  Bank- 
ing Laws;  Member  of  the  Commission  that  drew  up  the 
Mining  Code  in  1884,  and  the  reform  of  the  same  in  1892; 
Member  of  the  Public  Credit  Commission;  Author  of  the 
Laws  for  the  regulation  of  the  Public  Debt  in  1886; 
Chairman  of  the  Commission  appointed  to  report  upon  the 
best  means  to  counteract  the  effects  of  the  depreciation  of 
silver;  Member  of  the  Monetary  Commission  in  1894; 
Professor  of  Mathematics  at  the  National  Preparatory 
School;  Professor  of  Hydrography,  Calculus  and  Political 
Economy  at  the  National  School  of  Engineers;  Member  of 
the  Geographical  and  Statistical  Society;  Chairman  on 
various  occasions  of  the  Commissions  representing  the  De- 
partments of  the  Treasury,  Fomento  and  Communication 
and  Public  Works  in  Congress;  Editor-in-Chief  of  La 
Libertad;  Editor  of  El  Siglo  XX,  Mexico  Finandero  and 
La  Prensa;  Author  of  Agricultura,  Jornales  y  Miserias,  El 
Porvenir  de  las  Naciones  Latino  Americanos;  Treatises  on 
Constitutional  Law,  Metallurgy  and  Fermentation,  and  the 
following  critical  historical  works,  Las  Grandes  Mentiras 
de  Nuestra  Historia,  El  Verdadero  Juarez,  Juarez  y  la 
Revolution  de  Reforma,  La  Guerra  de  Independencia. 


PREFACE 

The  Mexican  revolution  has  a  threefold  aspect  at  present: 
that  of  a  great  social  drama;  of  a  weighty  international 
problem,  and  of  a  terrible  socialistic  experience  for  a  people, 
whose  starved,  infuriated  and  overwrought  element  ob- 
tained a  complete  victory  over  the  representative  element  in 
August,  1914. 

Passion  is  the  mainspring  of  every  drama;  and  every 
great,  international  political  problem  sets  the  passion  of 
patriotism  in  motion,  as  well  as  the  passion  to  secure  well- 
being  in  the  future  at  the  expense  of  the  present.  Socialism 
in  its  practical  application  is  a  compelling  force,  destructive 
of  traditional  civilization,  especially  when  it  champions  the 
cause  of  the  poor  in  their  struggle  against  the  rich. 

The  "Mexican  case"  has  become  the  slogan  of  the  two 
American  political  parties  now  warring  for  supremacy  in 
the  coming  elections;  and  it  may  be  said  to  represent  the 
clash  of  two  great  interests,  drowned  in  a  torrent  of  deaf- 
ening and  sinister  language.  The  object  of  this  book  is 
to  arrive  at  the  truth,  guided  by  one  master  passion,  the 
passion  for  justice.  It  is  capable  of  inspiring  terror,  of 
animating  by  hope,  of  ennobling  by  patriotism,  of  enlighten- 
ing by  faith,  of  illuminating  moral  abysses  by  the  power  of 
its  own  sovereign  force.  My  task  is  by  no  means  an  easy 
one,  as  it  is  very  difficult  to  treat  a  question  quite  dispas- 
sionately, when  the  heart  appeals  against  the  judgment  of 
the  head. 

My  attitude  is  not  one  of  enmity  toward  the  Mexican 
revolution.  Study  has  taught  me  what  all  men  who  have 

vii 


viii  PREFACE 

studied  the  question  scientifically  known;  that  is,  that  every 
genuine  revolution  is  a  benefit  to  humanity  in  general,  as 
well  as  to  the  people  themselves,  if  they  can  carry  it  to 
a  successful  issue.  But  when  the  people  who  revolt  lack  the 
necessary  reactionary  power  to  reconstruct  their  country, 
they  perish  as  a  nation,  or  cease  to  exist  as  a  social  body. 
I  am  not  an  enemy  of  the  revolution,  but  I  do  look  with 
horror  upon  its  progress,  because  Mexico  is  my  native  land 
and  from  the  final,  supreme  test  of  the  revolution  may  result 
the  loss  of  its  independence,  or  the  extermination  of  the 
race,  ground  to  dust  under  the  merciless  hoofs  of  anarchy. 

To  every  reader  of  this  book  I  proffer  the  assurance  of 
absolute  candor,  and  the  exposition  of  the  truth,  in  so  far  as 
it  is  humanly  possible  to  state  it. 

THE  AUTHOR. 


CONTENTS 


PART    FIRST 

SOME    PRESIDENTIAL    FACTS    CONCERNING 
SOCIOLOGICAL  CONDITIONS  IN  MEXICO 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.    PRESIDENT  WILSON'S  ATTEMPT  TO  ESTABLISH 

LIBERTY  IN  MEXICO  A  COSTLY  FIASCO       .       i 

II.  THE  GREAT  FIASCO  OF  THE  MEXICAN  REVO- 
LUTIONISTS AND  PRESIDENT  WILSON  IN 
THE  AGRARIAN  QUESTION  .  .  .  -36 


PART   SECOND 

THE  TRUTH  CONCERNING  THE  ORIGIN  OF 
THE  MEXICAN  REVOLUTION  AND  ITS 
DEVELOPMENTS  UP  TO  THE  TIME  OF 
PRESIDENT  WILSON'S  INTERVENTION 

I.    A    BOXER    REVOLUTION    PROTECTED    BY    THE 

UNITED  STATES  GOVERNMENT     .       .       .103 

II.    THE  MORAL  UPHEAVALS  OF  THE  REVOLUTION   132 

III.    MADERISM 152 

iz 


x  CONTENTS 

PART   THIRD 

THE  POLITICAL  AND  HISTORICAL  INDICT- 
MENT OF  PRESIDENT  WILSON  IN  THE 
MEXICAN  CASE 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.    THE  FIRST  INSTALLMENT  OF  LIES  ACCEPTED 

BY   PRESIDENT  WILSON         .       .       .       .189 

II.    PRESIDENT   WILSON    AND    FIRST   CHIEF    CAR- 

RANZA 241 

III.   THE  COLLAPSE  OF  PRESIDENT  WILSON'S  MEX- 
ICAN  POLICY  .    281 


PART    FOUR 

MEXICO'S    PROBABLE    CONDITION  IN  THE 
IMMEDIATE    FUTURE 

I.   THE  MAGNITUDE  OF  THE  DISASTER  .  .    307 

II.   THE  COLLAPSE  OF  CARRANCISM        .  .  -334 

III.  FINAL     CONCLUSIONS:     PRESIDENT    WILSON'S 

LATEST  SERIOUS  ERRORS        .       .  .  .360 

IV.  ARMED  INTERVENTION  BEGINS    .       .  .  •    37° 


PART  FIRST 

SOME  ESSENTIAL  FACTS  CONCERNING 
SOCIOLOGICAL  CONDITIONS  IN  MEXICO 


CHAPTER  I 

PRESIDENT  WILSON'S  ATTEMPT  TO  ESTAB- 

LISH LIBERTY  IN  MEXICO  A  COSTLY 

FIASCO 

THE    PRESIDENTIAL   MESSAGE   OF  DECEMBER  7, 


THE  attentive  perusal  of  President  Wilson's  message, 
read  before  the  assembled  Houses  of  Congress  on 
December  7,  1915,  produces  a  chilling  sense  of 
disappointment,  inasmuch  as  that  notable  document  contains 
nothing  bearing  upon  Mexico  which  in  the  slightest  degree 
meets  the  anxious  expectations  of  the  millions  of  individuals 
who,  from  motives  noble  or  otherwise,  watch  from  a  dis- 
tance the  development  of  the  terrible  and  sanguinary  drama 
now  being  enacted  there.  In  this  drama,  the  plot  of  which 
he  has  never  understood,  President  Wilson  has  essayed  to 
figure  as  one  of  the  principal  actors. 

It  does,  however,  reveal  with  unmistakable  clearness  that 
President  Wilson's  dreams  of  an  humanitarian  apostolate 
have  been  shaken,  not  to  say  dissipated,  by  the  rude  shocks 
of  savage  and  criminal  realities.  When  an  intelligent  man, 
a  man  of  character,  of  great  civic  weight  —  a  man  who  lays 
claim  to  political  discernment  verging  on  mathematical  pre- 
cision, as  does  Mr.  Wilson,  is  guilty  of  glaring  contradic- 
tions when  addressing  himself  to  the  world  —  for  the  world 
listens  when  the  President  of  the  United  States  speaks  to 
the  American  people  —  it  is  because  the  spirit  of  the  exalted 
apostle  has  been  crushed  by  the  annihilating  force  of  tragic 
events  which  cannot  be  denied,  disguised,  dissimulated  or 
justified. 

President  Wilson  tells,  us  that  the  troubled  Republic  of 


2          WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT   MEXICO 

Mexico  has,  "in  the  radical  but  necessary  process,"  been 
able  to  count  upon  but  few  sympathizing  elements  outside 
its  own  boundaries.  As  a  scholarly  man,  Mr.  Wilson  can- 
not ignore  the  fact  that  without  exception  every  revolution 
rendered  necessary  by  circumstances  is,  has  been  and  ever 
will  be,  beneficial  for  the  people  who  engendered  it,  and  for 
humanity  in  general.  If  the  Mexican  revolution  was  a  neces- 
sity, there  should  be  no  hesitation  or  vacillation  in  stating 
that  its  authors  have  conferred  great  benefits  upon  Mexico; 
whereas  Mr.  Wilson  has  stated,  in  the  aforesaid  message, 
with  strange  disregard  for  exactness,  policy  and  ethics: 
"Whether  we  have  benefited  Mexico  by  the  course  we  have 
pursued  remains  to  be  seen."  This  course  has  been  a  policy 
of  blind  and  decided  championship  of  the  cause  of  the  Mex- 
ican revolutionists.  Is  there,  then,  no  contradiction  in  de- 
claring that  the  Mexican  revolution  has  been  a  necessity, 
and  in  expressing  doubt  as  to  whether  or  not  in  protecting 
this  revolution  a  benefit  has  or  has  not  been  conferred  upon 
Mexico  ? 

President  Wilson's  words  do  not  ring  true.  The  con- 
sciousness of  the  Latin-American  nations  ought  to  be  stirred 
by  the  self-evident  fact  that  the  President  of  the  United 
States  seems  completely  to  have  changed  his  personality,  to 
possess  to-day  an  identity  which  seems  to  have  forgotten  that 
of  yesterday,  or  shall  we  say  that  so  great  a  personage  has 
lost  sight  of  the  fact  that  his  exalted  position  binds  him  in 
loyalty  to  words  once  spoken.  "All  the  governments  of 
America  stand,"  says  President  Wilson,  "so  far  as  we  are 
concerned,  upon  a  footing  of  genuine  equality  and  unques- 
tioned independence."  It  must  have  been  the  other  Wilson 
then  who  addressed  to  the  independent  Mexican  Govern- 
ment under  General  Huerta,  through  his  personal  repre- 
sentative, Mr.  Lind,  the  note  in  which  the  President  of 
the  United  States,  in  a  form  that  might  fittingly  be  assumed 
toward  the  Governors  of  Porto  Rico  or  the  Philippines,  de- 


WILSON'S  ATTEMPT  A  COSTLY  FIASCO      3 

mands  that  the  Mexican  Government  comply  immediately 
with  the  following  orders: 

" First — Complete  cessation  of  hostilities;  that  is,  an  im- 
mediate peace,  or  at  least  a  truce,  in  Mexico. 

"Second — That  President  Huerta  resign  in  favor  of  a 
President  ad  interim. 

1  'Third — The  fixing  of  an  early  date  for  the  presidential 
elections. 

''Fourth — That  General  Huerta  should  not  be  a  candi- 
date for  the  presidency." 

In  an  interview  granted  to  a  representative  of  The  Sat- 
urday Evening  Post,  Mr.  Wilson  made  the  following  state- 
ment: "My  ideal  is  an  orderly  and  righteous  government  in 
Mexico ;  but  my  passion  is  for  the  submerged  eighty-five  per 
cent  of  the  people  of  the  Republic,  who  are  now  struggling 
toward  liberty."  It  is  difficult  to  understand  how  it  is  pos- 
sible to  conceive  that  justice  is  being  shown  to  a  people 
struggling  toward  liberty — a  people  which  believes  that  this 
liberty  can  exist  only  under  an  orderly  and  righteous  gov- 
ernment emanating  from  its  sovereign  will — by  the  assump- 
tion on  the  part  of  the  President  of  the  United  States  that 
he  possesses  the  right  to  interfere  and  establish  an  orderly 
and  righteous  government  in  Mexico;  and  if  this  policy  of 
the  White  House  is  not  set  forth  as  based  upon  this  right 
or  power,  it  must  be  looked  upon  as  a  barefaced  act  of  ag- 
gression against  the  independence  and  sovereign  rights  of 
the  Mexican  people. 

In  the  same  interview  Mr.  Wilson  also  stated :  "Second — 
No  personal  aggrandizement  by  American  investors  or  ad- 
venturers or  capitalists,  or  exploitation  of  that  country,  will 
be  permitted.  Legitimate  business  interests  that  seek  to  de- 
velop rather  than  exploit  will  be  encouraged."  Mr.  Wilson 
must  be  confusing  Mexico  with  Porto  Rico  or  the  Philip- 
pines. Does  he  not  know  that  the  Mexican  people  possess 
the  sovereign  right  even  to  allow  themselves  to  be  robbed  by 


4         WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT   MEXICO 

the  North  American  capitalists,  or  those  of  any  other  nation, 
and  that  they  cannot  permit  the  President  of  the  United 
States  to  acquire  the  power  to  revise  all  the  legislative  acts 
of  the  Mexican  Government,  and  to  dissolve  with  inexorable 
imperial  veto  the  laws,  decrees  and  resolutions  of  this  Gov- 
ernment, even  though  the  White  House  affirm  that  it  has 
the  power  to  exercise  the  rights  of  tutelage  over  eighty-five 
per  cent  of  the  Mexican  people? 

Having  noted  some  of  the  contradictions  that  the  Presi- 
dent of  the  United  States  has  permitted  himself  to  be  guilty 
of  in  regard  to  the  "Mexican  Case,"  it  may  be  well  to  con- 
tinue the  analysis  until  one  essential  fact  is  satisfactorily  ex- 
plained and  settled.  If  the  Mexican  revolution  was  a  neces- 
sity, then  it  is  an  imperative  duty  to  fix  beyond  the  shadow 
of  a  doubt  for  whom  the  necessity  existed.  For  Mexico? 
For  the  United  States?  For  Europe?  For  humanity  in 
general?  And  if  this  revolution  was  not  a  necessity,  upon 
whom  must  the  verdict  of  history  and  contemporaneous  pub- 
lic opinion  fix  the  guilt  of  high  treason  against  humanity, 
and  against  the  inalienable  obligations  that  rest  upon  the 
chief  executive  of  a  nation? 

PRESIDENT    WILSON    SETS    HISTORY   ASIDE 

In  the  interview  already  spoken  of,  published  in  The  Sat- 
urday Evening  Post,  the  writer  tells  us  that  the  President 
"hit  the  desk  with  that  clenched  fist,"  and  said,  "  'I  chal- 
lenge you  to  cite  to  me  an  instance  in  all  the  history  of  the 
world  where  liberty  was  handed  down  from  above!  Lib- 
erty always  is  attained  by  the  forces  working  below,  under- 
neath, by  the  great  movement  of  the  people.  That,  leav- 
ened by  the  sense  of  wrong  and  oppression  and  injustice,  by 
the  ferment  of  human  rights  to  be  attained,  brings  freedom.'  " 

I  take  up  the  gauntlet.  I  accept  President  Wilson's  chal- 
lenge to  give  him  a  single  instance  in  history  where  liberty 
has  been  "handed  down  from  above." 


WILSON'S  ATTEMPT  A  COSTLY  FIASCO      5 

The  Roman  liberties  were  the  work  of  an  assemblage  of 
patricians  emanating  from  an  aristocracy  which  counted 
soldiers,  landed  proprietors  and  jurists  in  its  ranks.  Almost 
everything  in  the  patriotic  history  of  Rome  to  which  we 
look  up  to  and  admire — the  creation  of  its  civil  laws,  its 
legislative  work,  its  recognition  of  the  rights  of  the  people 
and  even  of  the  slaves — was  "handed  down  from  above." 
Who  would  attribute  to  the  "forces  working  below"  the 
glories  of  Senatorial  Rome's  golden  era?  The  triumph  of 
the  masses  produced  three  hundred  years  of  Caesarism. 

The  famous  Spanish  liberties  declared,  sustained  and  elu- 
cidated by  such  far-famed  political  monuments  as  the  Cortes, 
the  Fueros,  the  Justicia  de  A r agon  and  the  Church — recog- 
nized as  a  sovereign  power  within  the  State — were  not  the 
creations  of  the  half-clothed  denizens  of  the  sub-stratum  of 
humanity,  but  of  the  Infantes  of  Spain,  steeped  as  they  were 
in  the  spirit  of  feudalism ;  of  the  Ricos-homes •,  crowned  with 
the  dignity  of  free  men;  of  the  prelates  who,  claiming  the 
prerogatives  granted  them  by  the  Church,  imposed  their 
authority  upon  the  kings  to  curb  their  despotism.  On  the 
other  hand,  from  the  heart  of  the  Spanish  people — the  forces 
working  below — sprang  their  admiration  for  militarism, 
their  veneration  for  the  arquebus  and  cutlass,  and  that  ideal 
of  the  subjugation  and  transformation  of  a  people  by  con- 
quest, a  conquest  that  left  the  weaker  vassal,  beaten  and 
crushed,  but  nevertheless  glorying  to  live  subject  to  her 
overbearing  lord,  the  military  power.  The  Spanish  populace 
applauded  the  destruction  of  the  ancient  liberties  implanted 
by  the  grandees,  although  inevitably  and  in  great  measure 
they  were  their  own,  and  reverted  with  their  former  blind 
and  fervid  devotion  to  their  king  and  their  God. 

It  is  readily  granted  by  all  moderately  well-educated 
people,  and  by  every  Anglo-Saxon  acquainted  with  this  his- 
tory of  his  national  life,  that  the  origin  of  the  English  lib- 
erties— adopted  in  more  or  less  modified  form  by  all  civ- 


6          WHOLE   TRUTH    ABOUT    MEXICO 

ilized  nations — is  to  be  found  in  the  Magna  Charta  of  King 
John,  a  work  that  cannot  be  traced  to  the  "forces  working 
below,"  as  it  was  forced  upon  this  monarch  by  none  other 
than  the  English  barons.  The  other  two  great  legislative 
monuments  which  incorporate  the  liberties  of  the  English 
people  are  the  Bill  of  Rights  and  the  Petition  of  Rights, 
both  emanating  from  the  opulent  industrial  element  and  the 
aristocracy,  still  wedded  to  feudal  ideas  of  liberty.  It  was 
not  until  1832,  when  the  first  important  reforms  in  the 
electoral  laws  were  effected,  that  the  English  people  were 
accorded  a  voice  in  the  affairs  of  the  nation,  and  by  1832 
the  ancient  and  celebrated  English  liberties  had  been  per- 
fected and  completed,  nothing  in  their  composition  having 
emanated  from  "the  forces  working  below,"  alone  endowed, 
according  to  President  Wilson,  with  a  veritable  liberty- 
creating  potency. 

The  great  French  Revolution,  initiated  in  1789,  is  per- 
haps the  most  convincing  example  of  the  failure  of  the  masses, 
not  only  to  create  the  ideal  liberal  state,  but  adequately  to 
understand  and  practice  true  liberty.  Whatever  of  good 
survived  the  ravages  of  this  great  national  struggle  did  not 
come  from  the  political  forces  that  brought  it  into  being. 
The  salient  features  of  this  movement  were  the  revoking  of 
the  privileges  of  the  Crown,  of  the  nobility,  of  the  clergy, 
of  the  judiciary,  and  this  revocation  was  decreed  after  being 
learnedly  and  brilliantly  discussed  by  the  Constituent  As- 
sembly. The  sweeping  financial,  legislative  and  adminis- 
trative reforms  that  modified  the  ancient  regime  were  the 
work  of  the  Assembly  of  1791.  But  no  sooner  had  the  sover- 
eign power  passed  into  the  hands  of  the  people,  than  there 
appeared  on  the  horizon  the  most  frightful  tyrannical  ma- 
chine the  world  has  ever  known,  the  National  Conven- 
tion, that  servile  instrument  of  the  great  crimes  and  in- 
credible follies  of  the  Reign  of  Terror.  What  was  the  out- 
come of  all  this?  The  terror  produced  by  the  will  of  the 


WILSON'S  ATTEMPT  A  COSTLY  FIASCO      7 

people  permeated  all  ranks  and  classes — the  great,  the 
middle  class,  the  lowly,  the  revolutionists,  and  even  the 
terrorists.  The  people  themselves  ended  by  flinging  aside 
their  sovereign  rights,  seeking  in  Napoleon  I  and  Louis 
XVIII  agents  who  would  restore  to  them,  at  least  in  part, 
their  ancient  institutions.  These  they  now  realized  to  be  a 
necessity  to  their  well-being,  moulded  as  they  had  been  by 
the  traditions  of  the  past  which  the  revolution  had  sought 
to  obliterate,  forgetful  that  in  the  life  of  a  people  the  past, 
the  present  and  the  embryonic  future  are  inseparably  united. 
The  great  French  Revolution,  launched  in  the  name  of 
liberty,  and  for  the  attainment  of  liberty,  succeeded  in  the 
end  in  arousing  in  the  minds  of  the  people  a  veritable  panic 
at  the  mere  mention  of  their  sovereign  rights,  and  a  sense  of 
loathing  for  the  very  name  of  liberty  itself.  The  nineteenth 
century  apostles  of  liberty  did  not  dare  to  raise  their  stand- 
ard in  France  until  1830,  and  that  revolution  was  not  at 
once  extinguished  because  the  wealthy  bourgeoisie  stepped 
in  and  snatched  the  reins  from  the  hands  of  the  socialist 
propagandists.  This  liberal  regime  was  sustained  by  the 
industrial  world,  supported  by  that  section  of  the  aristocracy 
which  preferred  this  kind  of  liberalism  to  being  the  victim 
of  the  sovereign  will  of  the  masses.  The  Revolution  of  1848 
restored  the  people  to  power,  but  when  the  attempt  was 
made  to  put  into  practice  the  most  absurd  socialist  doc- 
trines, a  reaction  set  in,  upheld  by  those  who,  although  lov- 
ing liberty,  preferred  the  despotism  of  a  Caesar  to  being 
trampled  upon  by  the  rabble.  From  the  offscourings  of  the 
Second  Empire  rose  that  volcanic  eruption  known  as  the 
Paris  Commune,  which  threatened  to  engulf  the  French 
nation.  As  though  to  nullify  this  sinister  manifestation  of 
the  rule  of  the  people  there  came  forth  the  order  and  liberty 
of  the  conservative  republic,  in  which  all  Frenchmen  united, 
wishing  to  save  their  nation  from  the  catastrophies  to  which 
it  had  been  exposed  by  the  rule  of  the  people.  The  French 


8         WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT   MEXICO 

Republic  has  developed  gradually  into  a  radical-socialist  re- 
public, bearing  in  its  womb  the  pulsing  monster  of  doctrinal 
socialism  and  empirical  anarchism. 

Why  is  the  United  States  an  exception  to  the  rule  which 
dominates  in  Latin  countries  of  incompatibility  between  lib- 
erty and  democracy? 

From  the  first,  while  America  was  still  an  English  colony, 
it  understood,  practised  and  was  gradually  trained  in  the 
English  ideal,  and  when  it  achieved  its  independence  it 
came  forth  a  really  democratic  people,  because  it  possessed 
the  real  and  fundamental  condition  of  democracy,  an  equal — 
or  almost  equal — social  condition  among  its  citizens.  Like 
conditions  prevail  in  Switzerland,  where  the  proprietary 
class  is  in  the  majority,  and  so  long  as  this  unusual  condi- 
tion obtains,  liberty  and  democracy  can  exist  together,  be- 
cause the  soul  of  democracy  is  equality.  But  from  the  mo- 
ment that  the  proletarian  element  predominates,  liberty  has 
but  a  small  chance.  Moreover,  in  the  Anglo-Saxon  race 
there  is  faith  in  individualism,  born  of  the  results  achieved 
by  the  common  people  in  England,  where  the  working-man 
commands  the  highest  day  wage  in  Europe,  and  in  the 
United  States,  where  he  commands  the  highest  in  the  world. 
That  great  Anglo-Saxon  faith  in  liberty,  due  to  the  triumph 
of  its  efforts,  also  owes  its  origin  to  the  economic  elements 
which  the  Anglo-Saxon  race  has  manipulated  so  as  to  create 
for  its  common  people  a  situation  superior  to  that  of  any 
other  people  of  the  world. 

If  President  Wilson  will  examine  the  nature  of  liberty 
as  exemplified  by  its  evolution  in  different  countries,  he  will 
find  that  the  truly  protective  regime  has  always  been  built 
up  by  the  aristocracy,  supported  by  the  doctrine  of  divine 
right,  the  right  of  arms  and  the  right  of  the  landowner; 
that  the  liberty  which  has  been  the  outgrowth  of  what  is 
commonly  termed  the  "rights  of  man,"  has  sprung  from  the 
industrial  world,  directed  by  the  brains  of  capital,  combined 


WILSON'S  ATTEMPT  A  COSTLY  FIASCO      9 

with  the  old  aristocratic  forces  which  prefer  to  yield  rather 
than  to  be  annihilated;  that  Socialism  is  the  ideal  of  the 
working-man  of  to-day,  who  attributes  all  his  misfortunes 
precisely  to  this  kind  of  liberty,  as  the  creator  of  stupendous 
social  inequalities,  and  who  sees  in  the  capitalist  only  a  hugh 
crushing  machine  bent  upon  pulverizing  him  into  atoms. 
Outside  of  the  United  States  and  England  the  working-man 
is  not  emancipated  from  the  traditions  of  the  past;  he  is  a 
socialist  or,  what  amounts  to  the  same,  an  avowed  enemy  of 
liberty.  And  even  in  the  United  States  there  now  exists  a 
socialist  party  whose  existence  is  no  longer  ignored,  and 
whose  unwonted  demonstrations  from  time  to  time  have 
caused  the  individual  American  to  ask  himself  what  all  this 
may  portend.  In  anarchy  may  be  found  the  real  offspring 
of  the  "forces  working  below,"  the  real  domain  of  the  des- 
perate, the  cunning,  of  those  who  can  live  only  when  steeped 
in  hate  and  who,  believing  that  all  social  reforms  proposed 
with  a  view  to  making  the  life  of  the  working-man  happy — 
with  all  his  reasonable  wants  gratified — must  necessarily 
fail,  have  resolved  to  do  everything  in  their  power  to  de- 
stroy human  society. 

LIBERTY  AND   ORGANIC    SERVILITY 

President  Wilson  resolved  to  implant  liberty  in  Mexico: 
first,  without  right,  later,  without  reason,  and  still  later, 
without  acquainting  himself  with  the  nature  and  characteris- 
tics of  the  people  upon  whom  he  wished  to  bestow  that  lib- 
erty which  he  himself  says  "is  often  a  fierce  and  intractable 
thing." 

Mexico's  economic  resources  may  be  summed  up  as  fol- 
lows: 

Total  annual  agricultural  production,  350,000,000  pesos.1 

This  agricultural  life  of  the  nation  is  extensive,  carried 

1The  value  of  the  Mexican  silver  peso  was  approximately  fifty 
cents  gold. 


io        WHOLE   TRUTH    ABOUT    MEXICO 

on  by  a  population  scattered  over  a  vast  area,  without  na- 
tional unification  or  equal  civilization,  of  diverse  races  and 
languages;  one  only  in  illiteracy,  silence,  barbaric  trend  of 
thought,  hatred  of  the  white  race  and  perhaps  suffering,  al- 
though their  misfortunes  are  by  no  means  equal. 

The  annual  industrial  production  of  Mexico  in  1909  was: 

Sugar    and    the    manufacture    of    liquors    from 

sugar-cane,  maguey  and  grains 30,000,000  pesos 

Tobacco 1 5,000,000 

Cotton,  jute   and  woolen  materials 63,000,000 

National   railways    80,000,000 

Street   railways   1 1,000,000 

Electric  lighting,  public  and  private,   and  motor 

power    34,000,000 

Soap  and  paper    3,000,000 

Annual   production  of  silver 75,000,000 

Annual   production   of  gold 50,000,000 

Annual   production   of  copper 32,000,000 

Annual   production  of  iron 12,000,000 

Annual   production   of   lead 4,000,000 

Annual  production  of  zinc,  antimony  and  tin ...  3,000,000 

Annual  production  of  coal 12,000,000 

Annual   production  of  petroleum 30,000,000 

Total    454,000,000  pesos 

The  statistical  table  given  above  represents  an  average 
during  five  years  of  General  Porfirio  Diaz's  dictatorship, 
hepce  the  monetary  unit  used  to  compute  this  annual  pro- 
duction is  not  paper  currency  but  the  silver  peso,  valued  at 
the  rating  of  the  monetary  standard  of  1905,  averaging, 
therefore,  two  pesos  to  the  American  dollar.  Consequently, 
computed  on  this  basis  and  classified  under  the  two  head- 
ings of  agriculture  and  industries,  our  production,  previous 
to  the  saving  revolution  of  the  much-lauded  Francisco  I. 
Madero,  was: 

Total  annual  agricultural  production $175,000,000.00 

Total  annual  industrial  production 227,000,000.00 

Apparently  the  Mexican  nation  possessed  the  necessary 
elements  to  establish  a  regime  of  liberty  emanating  not  from 
the  civilizing  forces  that  work  from  below,  which  have  so 


WILSON'S  ATTEMPT  A  COSTLY  FIASCO     u 

captivated  Mr.  Wilson's  imagination,  butN:o  the  antagonism 
existing  between  two  forces,  the  aristocratic  agrarian  and  the 
industrial,  controlled  by  capitalist  sovereignty.  Liberty  is 
born  of  and  nourished  by  the  antagonism  created  by  tyran- 
nical social  forces  which  in  the  political  world  war  upon 
each  other,  or  unite  to  produce  advantageous  results  for  the 
people,  whose  sympathies  are  always  with  these  social  forces. 
Liberty,  then,  results  from  the  peaceful  impact  of  tyrannical 
forces  within  the  limits  of  the  community  they  pretend  to 
govern. 

Ostensibly  Mexico  should  enjoy  a  sound  industrial  regime, 
but  the  conclusion  to  be  arrived  at  after  carefully  consider- 
ing the  true  aspect  of  the  question  will  unavoidably  lead  to 
the  most  intense  disappointment. 

SOCIAL   ELEMENTS  THAT  DO   NOT  MAKE   FOR  LIBERTY 

Mexico's  import  trade — amounting  to  $150,000,000  at 
the  time  to  which  I  refer — as  also  her  internal  trade,  were 
almost  exclusively  in  the  hands  of  foreigners  or  foreign  en- 
terprises, whose  stockholders  and  boards  of  directors  were 
in  foreign  countries.  The  Mexican  Constitution  denies  po- 
litical rights  to  foreigners  and  does  not  permit  foreign  socie- 
ties or  companies  to  ban  together  for  political  purposes.  The 
result  of  this  measure  was  to  nullify  almost  totally  any  bene- 
fit that  might  accrue  to  politics  from  foreign  capital  circu- 
lating in  Mexico.  Nevertheless,  foreigners  could  indirectly, 
through  lawyers  protecting  their  interests  and  representing 
them  before  the  Government  and  the  people,  mix  in  political 
affairs  for  their  own  benefit  and  that  of  the  country.  There 
was,  however,  no  foreigner  in  Mexico  so  unsophisticated  as 
to  believe  that  the  Mexican  people  were  fit  for  liberty,  what- 
ever might  be  the  stable  form  of  governrrWj»t^tQ  whfcti  they 
might  incline.  Englishmen,  Frenchmen,  Italians^-JaparfCs^, 
Americans,  all  those,  in  fact,  possessed  of  common  sense,  have 
always  ridiculed  our  burlesque  democracies  and  condemned 


12        WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT   MEXICO 

the  crimes  for  which  they  are  responsible.  The  foreigner  in 
Mexico  who  believes  in  our  liberalism  must  be  either  lacking 
in  sense  or  devoid  of  veracity. 

The  foreign  element,  even  before  the  revolution  of  1910, 
and  before  and  during  the  dictatorship  of  General  Diaz,  was 
convinced  that  Mexico's  best  interests  would  be  served  by  an 
iron  hand,  backed  by  an  intelligent,  upright,  tolerant  and,  in 
so  far  as  was  possible,  honest  spirit.  Influenced  by  this  con- 
viction all  foreigners  living  in  Mexico,  or  having  money  in- 
vested in  the  country,  have  always  supported  every  dictator- 
ship that  in  their  estimation  appeared  competent  or,  under 
the  circumstances,  the  least  objectionable.  One  of  their  in- 
direct methods  of  upholding  the  dictatorship  was  not  to  em- 
ploy Mexicans  who  mixed  in  politics  unless  they  measured 
up  to  the  required  standard ;  that  is,  unless  they  were  uncon- 
ditional partisans  of  the  dictatorship.  This  restriction  of  the 
industrial  force  of  the  nation,  which  was  gathered  together 
almost  exclusively  under  foreign  management,  and  which 
was  the  only  other  serious,  positive,  beneficent  force — one 
which  favored  a  dictatorship  only  because  of  its  own  inabil- 
ity to  establish  liberty — removed  from  politics  an  independ- 
ent element  which,  not  relying  on  the  dictatorship  for  its 
daily  bread,  should  have  been  free  to  fight  it  and  establish  a 
responsible  government. 

FURTHER  ELEMENTS  OPPOSED  TO  LIBERTY 

Elements  have  existed  in  Mexico  for  the  formation  of 
an  active,  useful,  respectable,  conservative  party.  The  prime 
requisite  for  this  is  an  aristocratic  land-owning  class.  Mexico 
has  a  landed  aristocracy,  Catholic  in  faith,  a  worshipper  of 
traditions  and  a  lover  of  liberty,  confined  within  the  limits 
of  a  centralized  or  federalized  conservative  republic.  This 
aristocracy  enthusiastically  entered  the  political  field  under 
the  protection  of  the  Constitution  of  1824,  but  failed  of  its 


WILSON'S  ATTEMPT  A  COSTLY  FIASCO     13 

aim  because  it  lacked  the  real  elements  of  strength;  namely, 
great  prestige  in  the  eyes  of  the  nation,  great  wealth,  a  feudal 
soul,  or  at  least  the  military  spirit,  with  a  strong  following 
in  the  army,  and  the  effective  support  of  religion. 

The  most  imposing  national  sanctuary  is  the  Pantheon,  in 
which  repose  the  ashes  of  the  dead  whose  immortal  deeds 
have  glorified  the  centuries.  In  countries  that  can  lay  claim 
to  a  venerable  tradition  the  national  glories  are  the  heroic 
deeds  of  its  nobility.  As  long  as  true  patriots  are  left  to 
these  lands,  even  when  anarchy  has  invaded  them,  the  tribute 
of  homage  and  gratitude  will  always  be  laid  at  their  feet, 
when  calm  has  restored  to  patriotism  its  reflective  quality. 
Mexico  cannot  hold  up  to  its  white  and  mestizo  l  races  glo- 
rious traditions,  lengendary  heroes,  or  inspiring  visions  of 
noble  Crusaders  and  fearless  conquerors  of  new  worlds.  The 
traditions  of  the  Mexican  Creole  aristocracy  are  puerile.  It 
represents  the  weak  type  which  needed  the  firm  hand  of  the 
conquerors  to  perpetuate  its  dominion.  The  people  know 
well  the  significance  of  the  coats  of  arms  of  their  aristocracy. 
With  the  exception  of  the  descendents  of  Cortes  and  his 
handful  of  formidable  companions,  the  rest  of  the  nobility 
merits  the  contempt  or  indifference  of  sane-minded  people, 
and  the  hatred  based  on  envy  of  the  illiterate.  However, 
although  the  pretensions  to  nobility  among  Mexicans  may 
be  irritating,  in  no  instance  have  the  culprits,  the  victims  of 
foolish  vanity  or  incorrigible  petulance,  deserved  implacable 
persecution. 

The  great  wealth  of  the  Mexican  landowners  is  another 
well-worn  lie  which  has  held  undisputed  sway  among  those 
who  have  not  an  accurate  knowledge  of  the  Mexican  social 
economic  problem.  In  due  time  it  will  be  shown  that  the 
landowner's  wealth  was  more  imaginary  than  real,  that  they 
were  burdened  with  innumerable  difficulties  and  were  more 
worthy  of  pity  than  of  hate. 

1  Mestizo — a   person  of  mixed   Spanish   and  Indian  blood. 


i4        WHOLE   TRUTH    ABOUT    MEXICO 

The  aristocracy  was  not  a  part  of  nor  did  its  influence 
hold  sway  in  the  army.  They  committed  the  irreparable 
blunder  of  withdrawing  their  sons  from  the  service  after 
the  fall  of  the  Emperor  Iturbide,  except  when  it  was  a  choice 
between  begging  or  seeking  a  military  appointment. 

The  Catholic  clergy  has  always  been  faithful  to  its  duty 
of  upholding  the  aristocratic  class  as  the  most  faithful  con- 
server  of  ultra-Catholic  traditions.  In  the  northern  states 
it  has  almost  entirely  lost  its  hold  upon  the  masses,  but  has 
held  it  among  the  people  living  south  of  the  22d  parallel  to 
the  frontier  of  Guatemala,  not,  however,  to  a  degree  to  in- 
spire heroic  uprisings  in  defense  of  their  faith.  Without 
effective  strength  the  Mexican  conservative  element  could 
not  take  an  active  part  in  the  government,  because  only  the 
strong  are  privileged  to  govern.  The  middle-class  poli- 
ticians found  a  way  soon  after  the  Declaration  of  Independ- 
ence to  exclude  the  aristocracy  from  party  struggles.  An 
original  system  was  invented,  simultaneously  enacted  through- 
out Spanish-America.  Every  revolutionist,  in  the  same 
breath  that  he  proclaimed  the  revolution,  declared  every  em- 
ployee of  the  established  government  a  traitor,  even  when 
he  himself  had  been  one — in  many  cases  the  most  favored. 
Every  traitor  was  condemned  to  die,  his  property  having  been 
previously  confiscated  for  the  good  of  the  country,  and  not 
even  his  children  escaped  the  branding-iron  of  the  "patriot." 
With  such  a  system  in  vogue,  and  bearing  in  mind  that  ulti- 
mately every  revolutionist  triumphed,  there  came  a  time 
when  property  owners  recoiled  from  taking  part  in  politics 
since  it  was  equivalent  to  aiding  in  their  own  execution. 
Only  those  who  had  nothing  to  lose  and  everything  to  gain 
entered  the  political  field.  From  that  time  politics  became 
the  chosen  trade  of  the  demagogue,  the  storehouse  of  the  ill- 
fed,  the  asylum  of  the  deluded,  who,  notwithstanding  some 
merit,  were  dragged  into  this  sewer,  the  gentlemanly  high- 
wayman's ofHce  being  turned  into  a  font  of  civic  virtues. 


WILSON'S  ATTEMPT  A  COSTLY  FIASCO     15 

After  its  last  political  venture- — the  attempt  to  raise  a  throne 
in  Mexico  for  the  Archduke  Ferdinand  Maximilian  of  Aus- 
tria— the  conservative  party  abandoned  politics,  advising 
their  sons  to  do  the  same,  telling  them  to  bear  in  mind  the 
words  of  England's  wicked  king,  spoken  on  the  eve  of  the 
battle  that  was  to  dethrone  him : 

"And  if  I  die,  no  soul  shall  pity  me: — 
Nay,  wherefore   should   they?   since  that   I  myself 
Find  in  myself  no  pity  to  myself." 

The  formation  of  a  conservative  party  in  Mexico  was  an 
impossibility.  From  1824  to  1880  the  only  thing  the  aristo- 
crats dreamed  of  was  the  advent  of  the  iron-handed  dicta- 
tor who  would  restore  peace  without  liberty,  so  that  liberty 
might  not  cause  the  dishonor  and  death  of  the  country. 

INTELLECTUAL    ELEMENTS    CONTRIBUTING    TO    LIBERTY 

Politics  is  a  constantly  changing  and  threatening  prob- 
lem, and,  like  all  great  problems,  requires  a  broad  and  thor- 
ough knowledge  to  solve  it.  In  every  country  this  can  be 
accomplished  only  by  its  intellectual  element.  If  President 
Wilson  in  his  strange  project  to  implant  liberty  in  Mexico 
did  not  and  could  not  count  upon  the  organic  forces  of  lib- 
erty— such  as  were  the  economic  interests  productive  of  po- 
litical and  moral  phenomena — neither  could  he  count  upon  the 
intellectual  element  to  favor  his  noble,  although  illogical 
propositions.  In  Mexico  a  truly  liberal  party  has  never 
existed,  or  even  a  faction,  or  do  the  genuine  liberals 
enjoy  the  slightest  political  prestige.  The  genuine  liberal 
in  Mexico  is  the  object  of  the  aversion  of  the  masses,  of  the 
persecution  of  the  so-called  liberals,  who  have  guided  and 
who  still  guide  the  destinies  of  the  nation,  and  of  the  con- 
tempt of  the  noisy  rabble  that  represents  the  people.  Many 
noted  foreign  publicists  have  remarked  this  after  studying 
our  politics.  In  Mexico  the  so-called  liberal  is  a  wild  beast 
ever  seeking  to  devour  his  neighbor's  liberties  and  to  abuse 


1 6        WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT   MEXICO 

his  own  so-called  liberties  in  order  to  turn  them  into  unlimit- 
ed despotism.  The  great  majority  of  Mexico's  so-called 
liberals,  moulded  generally  in  the  School  of  Jurisprudence, 
venerate  the  dogma  of  the  "unlimited  sovereignty  of  the 
people."  Now,  liberty  is  constituted  by  individual  rights, 
called  also  "the  rights  of  man."  All  government  rights  are 
an  insuperable  check  placed  upon  the  sovereignty  of  the  peo- 
ple, and  if  the  people  hold  the  sovereignty  individual  rights 
should  still  constitute  a  check  on  this  sovereignty.  Before 
omnipotence  no  one  has  rights;  consequently,  before  unlimit- 
ed sovereignty  of  the  people  liberty  cannot  exist.  Such 
individualism  is  the  Anglo-Saxon  doctrine  of  liberty  ac- 
cepted, applauded  and  taught  in  the  United  States.  How  is 
it  possible  that  the  president  of  a  republic,  wherein  every 
citizen  when  there  is  a  question  of  liberty  possesses  just  as 
much  authority  as  a  university  professor,  should  take  seri- 
ously the  Mexican  self-styled  liberals  who  acclaim  the  un- 
limited sovereignty  of  the  people? 

There  can  be  no  liberty  in  a  country  where  the  power  is 
concentrated  in  the  hands  of  those  who  have  invented  the 
most  heinous  crime,  destructive  of  liberal  principles;  that  is, 
the  crime  of  being  "an  enemy  of  the  people" — a  crime  that 
should  be  punished  with  disgrace,  confiscation  of  property, 
and  even  death  itself.  It  is  incomprehensible  that  the  Mexi- 
can people  who,  according  to  their  representatives,  are  the 
authors  of  the  famous  Constitution  of  1857 — f°r  which  so 
much  blood  has  been  shed,  so  much  pain  borne  and  so  much 
misery  spread  broadcast — can  grant  to  each  individual  Mexi- 
can the  right  to  be  its  sworn  enemy,  and,  nevertheless,  admit 
that  all  its  enemies  merit  the  punishment  of  confiscation,  tor- 
ture, death  and  the  subsequent  persecution  of  their  families. 
No  one  can  be  a  personal  enemy  of  the  people,  because  the 
people  as  a  whole  have  no  physical  personality.  An  indi- 
vidual may  be  said  to  be  the  people's  political  enemy  when 
he  is  opposed  to  the  popular  class  having  a  voice  in  the  gov- 


WILSON'S  ATTEMPT  A  COSTLY  FIASCO     17 

ernment,  or  when  he,  justly  or  unjustly,  censures  a  popular 
government.  The  Mexican  Constitution  recognizes  the 
right  of  every  individual  to  uphold  theocracy,  aristocracy, 
oligarchy,  plutocracy  or  absolute  despotism,  which  is  equiva- 
lent to  granting  to  every  individual  the  right  of  denying  the 
moral  or  intellectual  aptitude  of  the  people  for  self-govern- 
ment. Likewise,  the  Mexican  people,  in  conformity  with  its 
institutive  sovereign  will — formally  granted  by  the  Consti- 
tution— gives  to  every  individual  the  right  to  censure,  justly 
or  unjustly,  the  constitutional  representative  of  the  people, 
through  whom  it  exercises  its  sovereignty.  How  is  it 
possible — without  characterizing  this  people  as  unjust,  des- 
picable or  demented — to  accept  the  theory  that  it  recognizes 
the  right  of  every  individual  to  declare  himself  its  enemy 
within  the  limits  indicated  by  the  laws  formulated  by  it,  and 
that  this  public  should  yet  believe  itself  civilized  and  just, 
when  at  the  voice  of  a  demagogue  it  tears  its  supposed  enemy 
to  pieces  for  having  exercised  the  right  granted  by  the  Con- 
stitution and  sanctioned  by  the  people? 

The  truth  is  that  the  Mexican  people  has  never  through 
the  Constitution  of  1857  given  any  individual  the  right  to  be 
its  enemy.  This  great  liberal  legislative  instrument  was 
compiled  by  a  number  of  honest  and  patriotic  thinkers  who 
believed,  when  they  were  formulating  the  law,  that  they  were 
interpreting  the  will  of  the  people — not  the  real  people,  but 
an  imaginary  people.  Their  dreams,  fanned  into  delirium 
by  the  theories  of  foreign  writers,  caused  them  to  mislead 
the  illiterate  Mexican  people,  incapable  of  understanding  the 
meaning  of  rights  much  less  that  of  liberties. 

There  can  be  no  justice  among  the  peoples  where  this  per- 
nicious doctrine  is  held,  because  it  is  incompatible  with  the 
popular  claim  to  absolutism.  There  can  be  no  science,  be- 
cause in  the  ethnological  classifications  of  the  races  they  are 
divided  into  superior  and  inferior,  their  deformities  and  de- 
generations being  noted  just  as  though  they  belonged  to  the 


1 8        WHOLE   TRUTH    ABOUT    MEXICO 

zoological  species.  There  can  be  no  literature,  because  this 
reveals  the  cankers  growing  on  the  social  body  which  repre- 
sents the  people,  exhibits  them  to  excite  horror,  probes  them 
so  as  to  prognosticate  the  recovery  or  death  of  the  people, 
and  cauterizes  them  with  irons,  heated  red-hot  in  the  blast 
furnace  of  strict  moral  law.  There  can  be  no  art,  because 
without  liberty  the  artist  draws  only  caricatures  of  his  in- 
spirations, or  spurious  copies  of  what  should  always  remain 
hidden  in  nature.  There  can  be  no  history,  because  false- 
hood plays  a  necessary  and  stupendous  part  in  the  lives  of 
the  peoples  who  do  not  admit  this  theory.  Where  this 
criminal  "enemy  of  the  people"  doctrine  is  taught  there  ex- 
ists a  people  enslaved  by  adulators  and  accusers,  who  inflame 
its  vanity  and  treat  it  practically  like  a  domesticated  beast. 
The  Mexican  liberals  have  never  been  able  to  understand 
that  the  establishment  of  a  responsible  government  is  impos- 
sible in  a  country  where  two  political  parties  do  not  exist. 
These  are  the  only  means  known  up  to  the  present  time  by 
which  the  establishment  of  dictatorships  and  the  spread  of 
anarchy  can  be  prevented.  The  Mexican  liberals,  like  those 
of  all  Latin-American  nations,  aim  at  the  formation  of  only 
one  political  party — the  liberal,  needless  to  say — and  the 
conservation  of  the  power  in  its  hands  to  the  end  of  time. 
In  general,  the  Mexican  mind  rebels  against  accepting  as 
an  undeniable  truth  that  the  one-party  policy  is  pure  folly, 
and  that,  even  if  against  all  laws  it  were  possible  to  secure 
the  existence  of  one  party,  the  monopoly  of  the  supreme 
power  is  the  most  dire  of  all  monopolies,  inasmuch  as  it 
engenders  the  most  insupportable  of  all  tyrannies. 

That  President  Wilson  cannot  lay  claim  to  the  sym- 
pathies of  a  single  one  of  the  revolutionists  in  his  attempt 
to  implant  liberty  in  Mexico  is  explained  by  the  fact  that 
what  appears  to  be  an  unpardonable  tyranny  to  the  American 
mind,  is  acclaimed  as  the  most  precious  form  of  liberty  by 
the  revolutionists  and  their  followers. 


WILSON'S  ATTEMPT  A  COSTLY  FIASCO     19 

THE    SOCIAL    SUBSOIL 

In  order  to  study  the  Mexican  popular  class  in  its  politi- 
cal aspect  it  should  be  divided  into  two  classes,  rural  and 
urban,  the  latter  being  further  subdivided  into  the  work- 
ing class — which  forms  an  integral  part  of  the  industrial 
life  of  the  country — the  independent  artisans  and  the  do- 
mestics. 

The  rural  class  represents  eighty-five  per  cent  of  the 
total  population.  The  majority  of  this  class  is  composed 
of  persons  whose  social  condition  may  be  said  to  rank  with 
that  of  domesticated  beasts,  capable  of  being  turned  by  the 
influence  of  certain  socialistic  or  anarchistic  processes  into 
roaring,  untamed  beasts.  Don  Lorenzo  de  Zavala,  an  ultra- 
liberal  and  one  of  the  most  brilliant  political  men  that 
Mexico  has  produced,  had  an  unusual  opportunity  when  he 
was  governor  of  the  state  of  Mexico  to  make  a  scientific 
study  of  the  Indian,  as  the  aboriginal  race  predominates  in 
that  state.  I  call  attention  to  the  fact  that  Zavala  was  not 
a  canon,  a  feudal  aristocrat,  a  courtier,  or  a  plutocratic 
Jew.  Zavala  was  a  Jacobin  of  the  most  rabid  type,  held 
in  check  by  a  knowledge  of  realities  analyzed  by  his  great 
mind.  Nevertheless,  he  tells  us  that  the  great  and  noble 
ideal  of  the  Indian  of  1830  was  to  exterminate  the  whites, 
confiscate  their  property,  expel  the  mestizos  under  pain  of 
death,  reclaim  Mexico  for  the  indigenous  race,  and  make 
of  ft  a  nation  of  Indians  without  a  trace  of  white  blood 
or  European  civilization.  In  a  word,  the  Indian  ideal 
was  to  faithfully  reproduce  the  semi-theocratic  empire  of 
Montezuma,  with  its  human  sacrifices,  its  ferocious  gods, 
its  great  lords  with  Asiatic  visages,  its  cruel,  implacable 
warriors  and  its  inflexible  laws,  written  on  tablets  of  stone, 
as  though  to  accentuate  that  progress,  with  its  train  of 
evils,  would  be  conquered  by  brute  force.  In  1873  Loza- 


20        WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT   MEXICO 

da,  the  Indian  chief  of  the  Sierra  de  Alica,  at  the  head  of 
18,000  perfectly  armed  and  equipped  men,  made  a  des- 
perate attempt  to  restore  Indian  supremacy,  and  would  have 
occupied  and  devasted  the  city  of  Guadalajara  except  for 
the  check  given  him  by  General  Corona  in  the  battle  of 
the  Mojonera.  The  agrarian  question  has  only  been  the 
froth  of  the  Zapata  insurrection.  Fundamentally  it  is  a 
caste  war,  destined  to  restore  the  Indian  to  his  primitive 
religion,  to  his  patria  (fatherland)  taken  from  him  by 
the  whites,  to  his  laws  violated  by  the  Conquerors,  to  his 
wealth,  real  or  imaginary,  of  which  he  was  despoiled,  and 
to  realize  vengeance's  supreme  ideal,  to  be  recorded  down 
the  centuries,  wiping  out  the  heaped-up  injuries  of  genera- 
tions. This  is  neither  a  fabrication  nor  an  exaggeration. 
The  representatives  of  the  Zapatistas  at  the  Aguascalientes 
Convention  and  at  that  of  the  City  of  Mexico  during  the 
administrations  of  Eulalio  Gutierrez,  Gonzalez  Garza 
and  Lagos  Chazaro,  declared  clearly  and  firmly  that  what 
Mexico  needed  was  to  revert  to  the  Indians,  its  real  owners, 
and  that  no  terms  of  agreement  could  ever  be  reached  be- 
tween the  conquered,  turned  into  victims,  and  the  con- 
querors, incapable  of  forgetting  their  rights  of  conquest. 

The  great  majority  of  the  mestizo  rural  class,  who  re- 
semble the  Arabs  in  their  tendencies,  are  adventurous  and 
love  a  nomad  life.  As  a  general  thing  they  are  cowboys 
whose  ideal  of  liberty  spells  libertinism,  and  who  with 
rapidity  and  ease  fall  into  the  ways  of  brigandage.  The 
city  population,  composed  of  artisans,  is  absolutely  free. 
Direct  taxes  have  never  been  imposed  upon  it;  it  does  not 
understand  the  meaning  of  the  word  national  treasury,  and 
knows  no  oppression  other  than  a  levy  for  obligatory  mili- 
tary service.  It  is  precisely  this  class  which  believes  that 
no  voice  should  be  raised  against  the  will  of  the  people.  It 
is  anti-liberal,  although  it  thinks  itself  liberal,  the  contra- 
diction being  explained  by  the  nature  of  its  political  train- 


WILSON'S  ATTEMPT  A  COSTLY  FIASCO    21 

ing,  which  has  been  always  in  the  hands  of  the  leading 
demagogues. 

The  working-class  is  socialist  from  the  moment  it  sets 
its  foot  in  the  political  domain,  and  its  soul  revels  in  that 
paradise  of  social  equality  outlined  by  the  apostles  of  free- 
dom. The  only  working-men  organized  in  Mexico  accord- 
ing to  modern  labor  laws  are  the  workers  in  the  cotton 
mills,  and  they  were  so  active  in  asserting  their  rights  that 
the  Madero  Administration,  terrified  at  their  attitude, 
granted  them  what  Mr.  Wilson  does  not  dare  to  grant  and 
what  the  working-class  has  obtained  only  in  New  Zealand — 
a  minimum  rate  of  wage  set  by  the  State.  So  great  a  victory, 
obtained  without  a  desperate  effort  on  the  part  of  the  Mex- 
ican working-class,  proves  that  a  great  future  lies  open  to 
Socialism  in  Mexico. 

Throughout  the  Mexican  popular  class,  except  among 
the  more  civilized  artisans  and  working-men  commanding 
the  highest  day  wage,  the  popular  bandit — crowned  with 
real  or  imaginary  feats — is  held  in  the  greatest  reverence. 
These  brigands  have  taken  the  place  of  the  ancient  Lares, 
and  the  people,  deprived  of  the  guidance  and  influence  of 
their  parish  priests,  have  fallen  on  their  knees  before  the 
influence  of  the  bandit,  easily  converted  into  a  hero  at  the 
will  of  the  press. 

THE    MEANS    TO    RESTORE    PEACE 

From  this  cursory  glance  at  the  framework  of  Mexican 
sociology,  it  will  be  seen  that  at  the  time  the  revolution  of 
1910  broke  out  there  was  an  industrial  element,  backed  by 
capital,  which  worked  indirectly  in  politics,  and  was  a  de- 
cided partisan  of  the  civilized  and  civilizing  iron-bound  dic- 
tatorship; a  Catholic  landed  aristocracy,  with  servile  souls 
and  nerveless  hands,  ready  to  sell  its  pride  of  race,  its 
religious  zeal,  its  Iberian  arrogance  and  its  rights  of  con- 


22        WHOLE   TRUTH    ABOUT    MEXICO 

querors  in  exchange  for  the  protection  of  the  mailed  fist 
which  would  save  it  from  having  to  risk  its  head  and  its 
fortune  in  the  defense  of  its  legitimate  rights  and  ancient 
privileges;  a  cringing  liberal  crowd,  subservient  to  all  the 
dictators  by  its  cowardice  and  corruption ;  a  majority  among 
the  people,  reactionary  to  the  point  of  reverting  to  Aztec 
barbarity;  a  socialist  working-class  and  an  anti-social  artisan 
and  domestic  class. 

When  President  Wilson  voluntarily  took  upon  himself 
the  role  of  one  of  the  principal  actors  in  the  Mexican 
tragedy,  he  did  not  see  what  all  other  men  of  brains  the 
world  over  had  seen ;  that  is,  that  in  Latin- American  nations 
there  are  no  democratic,  aristocratic,  theocratic  or  social- 
ist governments — all  are  bureaucratic.  The  bureaucracy, 
as  should  be  the  case,  bows  to  the  principle  of  all  irrespon- 
sible governments — "the  nation  to  satiate  its  gluttony."  As 
it  is  not  the  producing  class,  which  is  the  representative  of 
all  social,  economic  interests,  and  which  should  be  safe- 
guarded with  every  possible  moral,  scientific  and  civic  pro- 
tection, the  office  of  the  bureaucracy  is  that  of  the  devastat- 
ing locust,  working  in  its  proper  domain  by  means  of  heavy 
taxes.  The  ideal  of  all  bureaucracies  is  that  the  great, 
voracious  middle  class — headed  by  the  educated  proletariat 
— should  live  tranquilly  and  lavishly  at  the  expense  of 
national  and  foreign  capital  and  that  of  the  popular  classes, 
who  were  to  be  fooled  with  poisoned,  sugar-coated  pills, 
artfully  prepared  by  the  demagogues. 

The  English  had  already  reduced  the  Latin-American 
political  parties  to  two,  pithily  described  as  the  "ins"  and 
the  "outs";  that  is,  those  who  are  in  on  the  rake-off 
and  those  who  are  not.  The  formula  for  temporary  peace 
in  countries  ruled  by  bureaucracies  amounts  to  socialism  for 
the  kid-gloved  politician.  Each  one  is  to  receive  from  the 
national  treasury  what  he  needs  to  satisfy  his  desires,  even 
though  he  may  do  nothing  to  earn  it,  or  what  he  does  may 


WILSON'S  ATTEMPT  A  COSTLY  FIASCO    23 

be  done  badly.  General  Diaz  understood  this.  In  1880  he 
set  aside  36,000,000  pesos  to  satisfy  the  greed  of  the  Fed- 
eral, state  and  municipal  bureaucracies;  but  this  sum  was 
barely  sufficient  to  half  provide  for  even  fifteen  per  cent  of 
the  middle  class,  which  lived  directly  or  indirectly  off  the 
bureaucracy.  The  economic  development  of  the  country 
by  means  of  foreign  capital,  especially  American,  enabled 
General  Diaz  to  pacify  the  country  by  what  came  to  be 
known  as  the  great  "Pan  y  Palo"  (Bread  and  Rod)  policy. 
No  sooner  was  the  voice  of  a  malcontent  raised  against 
the  Government  because  he  had  no  share  in  the  rake-off, 
than  the  dictator  immediately  took  note  of  the  "patriotic 
regenerator's"  complaint,  and  apportioned  to  him  his  share 
of  the  spoils  in  proportion  to  his  importance,  and,  conse- 
quently, his  ability  to  upset  the  order  of  things.  General 
Diaz,  without  ever  having  read  the  life  of  Louis  XI  of 
France,  believed  in  that  lugubrious  monarch's  principle  of 
government — to  draw  all  those  toward  him  who  were  capa- 
ble of  doing  him  grave  injury  or  rendering  him  important 
services;  or  if  the  means  of  attraction  failed,  to  kill  them, 
because,  forsooth,  the  Will  of  God  must  be  fulfilled,  and, 
incidentally,  that  of  the  king.  To  that  astute  policy,  then, 
the  Porfirian  policy  of  "Pan  y  Palo"  may  be  compared— 
the  policy  that  all  clever  dictators  have  adopted  from 
Augustus  in  Rome,  down  to  Guzman  Blanco  in  Venezuela, 
Porfirio  Diaz  in  Mexico  and  Estrada  Cabrera  in  Guate- 
mala. 

General  Diaz  succeeded  in  setting  aside  170,000,000 
pesos  annually  to  satisfy  the  voraciousness  of  the  bureau- 
cracies, which  sum  figured  in  the  Federal  revenue  budget 
of  the  states  and  municipalities.  As  the  economic  develop- 
ment of  the  country  had  created  upward  of  8,000  new  posi- 
tions for  the  middle  class  in  the  commercial  and  industrial 
world,  in  banks  and  in  connection  with  the  railroads, 
seventy  per  cent  of  the  middle  class  drew  from  the  budget, 


24        WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT   MEXICO 

the  balance  overflowing  to  the  employments  offered  by  com- 
merce and  industry. 

General  Diaz  believed  that  by  having  virtually  trans- 
formed the  State  into  a  socialist  orphan  asylum  for  the 
middle  class  he  had  secured  perpetual  peace  for  his  country. 
He  did  not  take  into  account  the  terrible  consequences  of 
the  extraordinary  system  of  contracts  that  was  to  spring 
up.  This  system  consisted  of  propositions  made  by  foreign 
capitalists  through  a  native  lawyer,  influential  in  political 
circles,  to  install  some  important  enterprise,  of  benefit  to  the 
public,  at  from  double  to  tenfold  the  amount  it  ought  legiti- 
mately to  cost,  according  to  expert  estimate.  The  pro- 
moter— who  often  did  not  possess  a  red  cent,  but  in  ex- 
change represented  an  imaginary  syndicate  hailing  from 
England,  Chicago  or  Wall  Street,  ready  to  invest  many 
millions  in  a  country  that  above  all  needed  money  to  de- 
velop its  natural  resources — and  the  lawyer  had  their  share 
in  the  enormous  profits,  the  remainder  being  divided  be- 
tween the  company  that  had  actually  invested  the  money 
and  the  public  officials  who  had  sold  their  honor.  This 
contract  system  was  composed  of  four  elements:  a  promoter 
of  foreign  extraction,  usually  English  and  sometimes  a 
Knight  of  Commerce;  a  company  that  undertook  to  buy  the 
concession,  binding  itself  to  respect  the  terms  agreed  upon; 
the  lawyer,  and  the  public  officials  who  were  parties  to 
the  extortion. 

This  system  is  the  universal,  public  robbing-machine  in- 
vented expressly  to  exploit  countries  whose  government  is, 
so  to  speak,  ornamental.  In  Latin-America  it  has  met  with 
more  success  than  Edison's  most  noted  electrical  discoveries. 
The  one  thought  of  the  so-called  political  parties  or  factions 
is  graft.  Accordingly,  they  head  their  programs  for  the 
progress  and  salvation  of  their  country  with  projects  for 
the  material  betterment  of  the  land,  carrying  them  to  the 


WILSON'S  ATTEMPT  A  COSTLY  FIASCO    25 

point  of  exhausting  the  public  credit  and  dragging  the  last 
cent  from  the  unfortunate  tax  payers;  and  at  the  same 
time  making  loud  demands  for  greater  educational  facilities 
(for  the  schools  provided  certain  perquisites),  which  if 
carried  out  would  be  sufficient  to  transform  the  humblest 
citizen  into  a  learned  doctor.  The  politicians  reap  the  bene- 
fits of  these  projects  for  material  betterment;  the  people  have 
to  be  satisfied  with  the  humble  school.  If  they  have  nothing 
to  eat,  it  matters  not;  if  they  are  dying  of  hunger,  it  is  all 
the  same;  the  school  is  the  panacea.  The  bureaucrats  de- 
cided that  the  material  benefits  should  be  for  them  and  the 
elevating  dissertations  of  the  pedagogues  for  the  people. 

BUREAUCRATIC    PERVERSION 

The  contract  system  destroyed  whatever  moral  sense  the 
middle  class  possessed.  The  socialist  working-men  said: 
"We  do  not  want  the  equality  of  the  law,  we  want  the 
equality  of  the  dollar."  To  do  them  justice  the  modest  sav- 
ings of  the  prosperous  middle-class  citizen  served  as  a  gauge. 
The  bureaucrats,  under  the  spell  of  the  workings  of  this 
system,  completely  lost  their  heads  and  proclaimed  the 
equality  of  all  bureaucrats  to  be  the  equality  of  the  dollar; 
but  their  standard  was  the  Rockefeller  millions. 

The  Mexican  middle-class  family  is,  as  a  rule,  a  centre 
of  civic  putrefaction.  This  grew  out  of  the  voraciousness 
of  the  bureaucracies  and  was  afterwards  increased  by  the 
appearance  of  the  contract  system.  When  the  influence  of 
the  Catholic  clergy  was  weakened  in  Mexico,  the  Catholic 
families  withdrew  from  the  conservative  party,  giving  free 
entrance  to  the  lowest  bureaucratic  element.  If  the  estab- 
lished government  was  conservative,  the  venerable  head 
of  the  family,  who  was  a  Government  employee,  was  also 
a  conservative;  his  oldest  son,  usually  a  lawyer,  always 
appeared  in  the  role  of  a  moderate;  the  second  son,  in  that 


26        WHOLE   TRUTH    ABOUT    MEXICO 

of  an  extreme  liberal;  the  unmarried  aunt  was  a  socialist; 
the  mother  of  the  family  was  the  comadre  1  of  the  general's 
aide-de-camp,  who  might  at  any  moment  raise  the  standard 
of  revolt,  and  the  son-in-law,  who  was  the  secretary  of  some 
working-man's  society,  would  in  any  strike  have  killed  two 
or  three  policemen,  smashed  shop  windows  and  set  fire  to 
liquor  and  tobacco  factories.  Every  avenue  was  covered, 
so  that  in  any  event  the  bureaucratic  employee  would  never 
be  ousted  from  his  softly  feathered  nest.  Whatever  may 
be  the  fluctuations  in  politics,  the  upheavals  among  the 
people,  the  situation  among  the  ultra-radical  faction,  the 
bureaucratic  family,  not  only  in  Mexico  but  in  all  Latin- 
America,  has  found  the  means  of  drawing  perpetually  on 
this  apparently  inexhaustible  source  at  the  cost  of  carrying 
out  a  degrading  program  to  the  letter  of  the  law.  When 
the  so-called  liberal  party  proclaimed  its  absolute  dominion, 
having  previously  destroyed  the  conservative  party,  it  split 
up  into  individualistic  bands  fairly  vibrating  with  cupid- 
ity. The  bureaucratic  element  then  embraced  the  motto  of 
the  cynical  Romans:  "With  Caesar,  if  he  be  strong; 
against  him,  if  he  be  weak;"  and  the  members  of  the  imme- 
diate circle  of  the  Caesar  devoted  themselves  to  that  policy 
of  adulation  that  characterized  them,  which  veiled  the  de- 
termination to  betray  him  at  the  opportune  moment.  The 
women  of  the  middle  class  were  converted  into  low-grade 
politicians  by  their  admission  into  the  Government  service. 
It  has  led  to  their  aping  the  men  when  by  virtue  of  their 
great  moral  superiority  they  are  a  privileged  class,  and  the 
result  is  far  from  pleasing.  In  General  Diaz's  time  the 
women  Government  employees,  and  those  aspiring  to  the 
honor,  belonged  to  a  club  called  "Daughters  of  Carmelita," 

1  Comadre — compadre  and  comadre,  called  compadres,  are  the 
persons  who  stand  sponsor  for  a  child  in  baptism  and  confirma- 
tion. In  Spanish-speaking  countries  a  very  warm  personal  tie 
binds  the  child's  parents  to  their  compadres. 


WILSON'S  ATTEMPT  A  COSTLY  FIASCO    27 

named  after  the  dictator's  wife.  When  Madero  triumphed 
they  called  themselves  "Daughters  of  Dona  Sara  P.  de 
Madero."  Since  then  we  have  had  "Daughters  of  Huerta's 
Iron  Hand,"  "Daughters  of  Villa,"  "Daughters  of  Zapata," 
and  at  the  present  time,  I  have  no  doubt,  they  appear  as 
"Daughters  of  Carranza."  Apparently  they  have  experi- 
enced no  difficulty  whatever  in  effecting  this  kaleidoscopic 
change  of  parental  authority. 


THE   POISONED  STREAM    FROM   WHICH   THE   POPULAR 
CLASSES    HAVE  DRUNK 

Gustave  le  Bon,  referring  to  Latin-American  republics, 
wrote:  "In  general  and  fundamentally  the  political  prob- 
lem of  the  Latin-American  democracies  is  the  problem  of 
public  thieving."  Undeniably  the  French  sociologist  is 
justified  in  his  statement;  but  this  does  not  mean  that  there 
are  not  in  Latin-American  governments  many  honest,  intel- 
ligent, energetic  and  sincerely  patriotic  men  whose  influence 
is  highly  beneficial.  As  a  rule,  if  they  do  not  succeed  in 
absolutely  banishing  corruption,  they  do  prevent  this  bureau- 
cratic brigandage  from  producing  by  its  unbridled  license  a 
state  of  social  anarchy.  Unfortunately,  it  is  a  fact  that  the 
ideal  of  the  middle-class  family  is  to  be  part  of  this  bureau- 
cracy, and  that  the  ideal  of  the  bureaucracy  is  to  rob  the 
nation  and  individuals  whenever  possible.  The  mother  is 
no  longer  the  religious  matron  who  shed  the  radiance  of 
her  virtue  over  the  home,  and  reared  men  for  God,  country 
and  humanity.  In  these  days  there  are  mothers  who  urge 
their  husbands,  sons,  sons-in-law  and  brothers  to  steal  from 
their  country.  Sons  are  reared  with  this  idea,  and  it  is  carried 
to  the  point  of  inculcating  that  this  public  theft  is  a  legiti- 
mate necessity,  that  it  is  an  art,  a  sign  of  distinction.  The 
result  of  this  schooling  in  depravity  has  been  that  the  lower 


28        WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT   MEXICO 

classes  have  had  this  baneful  example  before  their  eyes  for 
many  years,  which  has  destroyed  the  slender  thread  of  civic 
virtue  possessed  by  them  at  the  time  of  the  Declaration  of 
Independence.  It  also  threatens  to  destroy  all  personal 
virtue,  because  it  goes  without  saying  that  a  home  which 
is  a  den  of  thieves  cannot  be  the  nursery  of  virtue  and 
morality. 

Beginning  in  1824,  the  Mexican  middle  class  resolved  to 
cast  out  of  politics  all  the  conservative  elements  that  had 
been  the  outgrowth  of  tradition;  namely,  the  army,  the 
clergy  and  the  landowners.  After  forty  or  more  years  of 
this  so-called  fight  for  principles — which  in  reality  was  only 
a  fight  for  government  posts — although  politics  was  divided 
into  two  parties,  the  liberal  and  the  conservative,  the  par- 
tisans never  changed,  they  simply  shifted  their  allegiance 
whenever  it  appeared  profitable.  Since  1867  the  bureau- 
cratic middle  class,  directed  by  the  educated  proletariat,  has 
been  the  absolute  owner  of  Mexico,  the  real  oppressor  of 
the  people,  the  octopus  that  has  sucked  the  vital  juice  of 
all  popular  labor,  of  foreign  and  national  capital,  and  of  the 
patience  of  the  victims  who  carried  the  weight  of  this 
race  of  vipers,  given  unreservedly  over  to  bureaucratic  can- 
nibalism. 

The  powerful  class  in  all  Latin-American  countries  is  to 
be  found  in  the  bureaucracy,  but  unfortunately  for  these 
countries,  their  bureaucracies  are  not,  and  never  can  be, 
governing  classes.  A  government  exists  only  where  prop- 
erty is  respected.  Proletarian  sovereignty,  when  it  is  abso- 
lute, when  it  is  not  held  in  check  by  conservative  elements 
strong  enough  to  protect  property,  causes  its  ruin  and  ulti- 
mate destruction.  The  proletarian  element  cannot  estab- 
lish a  government  without  the  aid  of  the  army,  which  more 
or  less  successfully  manages  to  hold  the  bureaucratic  ele- 
ment within  bounds  by  resorting  to  a  dictatorship.  On  the 
other  hand,  an  army  in  which  the  proletarian  element  pre- 


WILSON'S  ATTEMPT  A  COSTLY  FIASCO    29 

dominates  gravitates  toward  absolute  militarism,  and  is  con- 
sequently dangerous.  In  Latin-American  nations  government 
without  military  support  is  not  understood,  even  when  this 
represents  absolute  militarism.  This  is  the  only  force  that 
can  keep  demagogism  within  bounds,  and  once  suppressed, 
the  latter  seeing  itself  cut  loose  from  all  restraint,  will  do 
what  it  has  done  in  Mexico — hand  over  the  nation  to  every 
known  form  of  brigandage. 

I  challenge  President  Wilson,  the  oracles  that  have  in- 
spired him,  the  politicians  who  have  supported  him,  to  give 
a  single  historical  example  of  the  existence  of  a  government 
sustained  by  the  dominion  of  the  educated  proletarian  or 
working-class  without  that  government  being  absolute  and 
despotic.  It  was  Montesquieu  who  first  put  into  words  the 
truth  that  had  been  established  by  centuries  of  experience: 
"In  a  country  where  aptitude  for  democracy  does  not  exist, 
and  which  does  not  possess  a  governing  class,  only  anarchy 
or  a  dictatorship  is  possible." 

Three  Latin-American  nations,  Argentine,  Brazil  and 
Chile,  have  ceased  to  be  ruled  by  strict  dictatorships.  The 
method  adopted  is  a  species  of  attenuated  dictatorship,  to 
which  an  admixture  of  the  plutocratic-bureaucratic  oligarchy 
has  been  added.  They  are  generators  of  oceans  of  corruption 
by  means  of  the  contract  system,  so  favorable  for  the  schemes 
of  public  thieves.  These  nations  owe  their  present  state  of 
freedom,  combined  with  an  increasing  excess  of  bureaucratic 
cannibalism,  to  the  aristocratic  and  plutocratic  conservative 
elements,  and  to  a  popular  element  which  defends  its  rights 
to  its  small  property  and  its  daily  wages  against  the  voracity 
and  criminality  of  the  demagogic  element.  In  Mexico,  since 
the  influence  of  the  Catholic  clergy  has  declined  in  politics 
and  its  landed  aristocracy  has  proved  itself  worthless,  either 
as  a  militant  or  a  peaceful  political  element,  the  only  remain- 
ing conservative  forces  are  the  army,  and  the  fact  that  the 
isolation  of  the  illiterate  rural  classes  puts  them  out  of  the 


30        WHOLE   TRUTH    ABOUT    MEXICO 

reach  of  the  demagogic  apostolate,  which  in  its  latest  form 
is  represented   by  socialism   and   anarchism. 


PRESIDENT  WILSON  S   BLINDNESS 

Five  months  before  his  overthrow  and  assassination,  Presi- 
dent Madero,  in  his  address  to  the  Mexican  Congress  in 
September,  1912,  expressed  his  doubt  as  to  the  Mexican 
people's  fitness  for  democracy.  That  worthy  but  artless 
President  said :  "Because  if  a  government  such  as  mine, 
which  has  honorably  kept  its.  promises ;  which  has  done  every- 
thing for  the  good  of  the  Republic  that  was  within  the  reach 
of  its  understanding;  which  was  installed  by  the  almost 
unanimous  vote  of  the  Mexicans — something  that  had  never 
happened  before;  if  such  a  government  cannot  endure  in 
Mexico,  Gentlemen,  we  should  say  that  the  Mexican  people 
are  not  fit  for  democracy,  that  we  need  a  new  dictator  who, 
sabre  in  hand,  shall  come  to  silence  ambitions,  to  suffocate 
all  the  efforts  of  those  who  do  not  understand  that  liberty 
can  only  flourish  under  the  protection  of  the  law."  Inas- 
much as  this  government  of  Madero's  did  not  endure,  the 
deduction — according  to  the  honest  convictions  of  Madero 
himself — is  that  the  Mexican  people  were  not  ready  for  a 
democracy  but  fitted  only  to  remain  under  the  tutelage  of  a 
dictatorship. 

In  another  address  to  Congress,  one  month  later,  recom- 
mending the  introduction  of  a  bill  for  compulsory  military 
service,  President  Madero  said :  "We  agree  that  the  first 
requisite  for  a  country's  advancement  is  peace,  and  it  seems 
— if  we  judge  by  Mexico's  past  history — that  it  is  more  diffi- 
cult to  preserve  peace  when  liberty  exists  than  when  it  does 
not.  When  liberty  does  not  exist  no  one  talks,  no  one  ap- 
pears to  be  ambitious,  no  one  even  aspires  to  have  an  ambi- 
tion, because  he  knows  it  will  soon  be  extinguished ;  but  now 


WILSON'S  ATTEMPT  A  COSTLY  FIASCO    31 

that  we  have  granted  liberty,  now  that  every  one  aspires  to 
be  governor,  now  that  every  one  is  free  to  electioneer  in  his 
own  behalf,  etc.,  it  follows  that  if  he  is  not  supported  in  the 
elections  he  will  take  up  arms." 

Madero  was  like  all  revolutionists  who  attain  to  power. 
When  he  planned  the  revolution  against  General  Diaz 
he  did  not  believe  "that  the  first  requisite  for  a  country's 
advancement  is  peace,"  but  proclaimed  that  the  country's 
greatest  need  wras  liberty,  and  when  he  was  at  the  helm  of 
State  and  realized  what  liberty  means  in  the  hands  of  a 
people  who  do  not  know  how  to  use  it,  he  said :  "It  is  more 
difficult  to  preserve  peace  when  liberty  exists  than  when  it 
does  not."  Madero,  for  lack  of  knowledge  and  reflection, 
did  not  understand  that  peace  and  liberty  go  hand  in  hand 
only  when  the  people  possess  the  technical  qualifications  to 
be  free,  and  that  it  takes  a  dictatorship  to  preserve  peace 
when  a  people,  instead  of  being  sovereign,  is  easily  led  to  be 
the  blind  and  servile  instrument  of  demagogism.  Peoples 
can  have  no  other  form  of  government  than  that  for  which 
they  are  fit,  and  the  Mexican  people  have  clearly  demon- 
strated their  unfitness  to  be  granted  the  rights  of  a  free 
people. 

When  the  fall  of  Madero  and  his  subsequent  assassina- 
tion became  known  in  the  United  States  an  American  news- 
paper wrote  the  following  just  arraignment:  "A  people  is 
not  to  be  feared  when  its  sane  element  has  overthrown  a 
government  which  it  had  only  fifteen  months  before  installed 
by  acclamation;  when  it  has  applauded  the  greatest,  the 
most  infamous,  the  most  cynical  treason  recorded  in  history, 
and  when  it  has  not  sufficient  virility  to  oppose  forcible  con- 
scription and  the  constant  outrages  of  the  government,  and 
to  suppress  disorder,  pillage,  sack,  rape,  and  the  burning  of 
villages  by  Huertistas,  revolutionists  and  bandits."  A  peo- 
ple that  allows  itself  to  be  slapped  and  spat  upon,  to  have  its 
laws  torn  to  shreds,  its  gods  overthrown,  its  women  violated, 


32        WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT   MEXICO 

to  be  robbed  of  its  honor,  its  means  of  livelihood,  even  of 
the  dry  crusts  which  were  once  doled  out  to  mendicants,  is 
not  a  people  capable  of  self-government,  nor  even  of  obtain- 
ing from  its  masterful  owners  the  treatment  accorded  to 
slaves. 

One  of  the  revolutionists,  an  honest,  intelligent  and  per- 
fectly sincere  man,  a  real  reformer,  took  up  the  well-known 
phrase  of  Victor  Hugo:  "If  a  man  is  not  a  republican  at 
twenty,  it  is  because  he  has  no  heart,  and  if  he  is  one  at 
forty,  it  is  because  he  has  no  brains."  1 

If  Victor  Hugo  had  contemplated  Latin-America  for  five 
minutes  after  its  independence,  he  would  have  said:  "If  a 
man  in  these  countries  is  not  a  democrat  at  twenty,  he  has 
no  heart,  and  the  one  who  at  forty  believes  in  the  democ- 
racy of  the  people  of  the  country  in  which  he  lives,  either 
lacks  sense  or  shame,  or  both."  From  the  Straits  of  Ma- 
gellan to  the  frontier  of  the  United  States  there  is  not  an 
intelligent  person  who  will  not  agree  that  the  ridicule  and 
contempt  heaped  upon  Latin-American  democracies  by  for- 
eign sociologists  are  amply  justified.  The  upper  classes  are 
admirably  skeptical  in  these  countries,  and  if  they  speak  of 
democracy  to  the  people  it  is  because  they  need  the  support 
of  the  sub-popular  classes  to  carry  out  their  great  and  bare- 
faced policy  of  theft.  The  sub-popular  classes  do  not  know 
what  democracy  means,  but  they  take  it  up  because  profes- 
sional agitators  have  played  upon  their  ignorance  to  the  ex- 
tent of  making  them  believe  that  democracy  and  happiness 
are  synonymous,  and  that  they  can  easily  be  obtained  along 
the  road  of  vice  and  crime.  Don  Lorenzo  de  Zavala,  of 
whom  I  have  already  spoken,  knew  well  the  noble  civic  aspi- 
rations of  our  large  political  class,  so  large  that  it  embraces 
almost  the  entire  middle  class.  Zavala  wrote  a  gospel  in 
the  following  lines:  "In  this  country  everybody  wants  re- 
ligion, order,  guarantees,  the  aggrandizement  of  the  coun- 

1  Madero  por  uno  de  sus  intimos,  p.  144. 


WILSON'S  ATTEMPT  A  COSTLY  FIASCO    33 

try;  in  other  words,  they  ask  for  democracy,  sovereignty  of 
the  people,  liberty  and  justice,  but  what  each  one  in  reality 
wants  is  tajada  (graft)."  Don  Lucas  Alaman  called  Mexi- 
can politicians  a  race  of  vipers.  Dr.  Mora,  a  talented  and 
honest  liberal,  wrote  to  the  truly  noble  patrician,  Don  Val- 
entin Gomez  Farias:  "Take  care  that  not  an  inch  of  the 
veneer  that  coats  your  followers  be  knocked  off,  because  it 
will  reveal  their  rascality."  Don  Sebastian  Lerdo  de  Te- 
jada,  President  Juarez's  talented  minister,  at  the  time  of  the 
triumph  of  the  republican  cause  in  1867,  ordered  the  sus- 
pension of  further  investigation  of  those  suspected  of  trea- 
son to  their  country  and  to  the  liberal  party  by  aiding  the 
Empire,  or  receiving  money  in  the  guise  of  alms,  because, 
if  the  investigation  had  been  continued,  it  would  have  meant 
the  apprehension  of  the  entire  liberal  party. 

Don  Pedro  Lamicq,  one  of  Madero's  most  ardent  revo- 
lutionary followers,  full  of  faith  in  his  reform  program, 
has  written  with  great  candor:  "I  am  not  a  demagogue. 
I  do  not  even  know  if  I  am  a  democrat.  I  do  not  believe, 
since  Madero's  unfortunate  experiment,  that  it  is  possible 
for  democracy  to  flourish  in  Mexico  where  the  uncivil  and 
uncivic  Creole — fatal  inheritor  of  the  Spaniard's  covetous- 
ness  and  insubordination — rules.  I  ask  for  a  dictator,  but 
a  good  dictator,  one  who  will  send  the  politicians  to  their 
homes  and  the  newspaper  men  to  jail ;  who  will  immediately 
take  up  the  work  of  reorganization  and  reconstruction;  who 
will  bind  up  the  wounds  of  the  people  and  mete  out  justice 
to  them.  A  dictator  with  an  iron  hand  who  will  seek  to  win 
the  support  of  the  people,  surrounding  himself  with  sane  and 
inflexible  men,  Creoles,  mestizos  and  Indians.  A  dictator 
who  will  lose  sight  of  his  personal  interests  and  consecrate 
himself  to  the  good  of  the  people.  And  note  well,  dear 
friend,  that  I  insist  on  this  not  only  now  after  Madero's 
fiasco,  but  that  I  have  insisted  on  it  ever  since  my  pen  has 
been  free  to  expres  my  thoughts  under  the  protection  of 


34        WHOLE   TRUTH    ABOUT    MEXICO 

that  liberty  which  I   have  been  one  of  the  few  to  know 
how  to  understand  and  respect."  1 

The  testimony  of  science  and  history;  of  respected,  tal- 
ented Mexican  revolutionists;  of  European  and  American 
sociologists;  of  the  American  Ambassador  to  Mexico;  of 
almost  all  the  Americans  in  Mexico,  who  have  had 
opportunities  of  studying  the  Mexican  people;  of  all  rep- 
resentative publicists,  who  have  justly  condemned  Latin- 
American  democracies;  of  the  crimes  committed  by  the  great 
majority  of  the  triumphant  leaders  of  1911 ;  of  the  American 
and  Mexican  Catholic  clergy;  of  all  the  significant  events 
emanating  from  the  Madero  revolution,  obliges  Mr.  Wilson 
to  follow  a  course  worthy  of  his  prestige  as  a  man  of  moral 
integrity,  as  a  university  president  and  as  the  head  of  a 
political  party  in  an  individualistic  democracy.  But  at  the 
supreme  moment,  when  everything  that  ordinarily  would 
and  could  have  impressed  a  great-minded  man,  urged  pru- 
dence and  justice,  the  President  of  the  United  States — car- 
ried away  by  academic  dreams,  saturated  with  lies  collated 
and  dispensed  by  his  advisers  for  political  reasons,  swayed 
by  the  pernicious  influence  of  the  sirens  who  beset  him, 
trafficking  with  the  misfortunes,  the  gaping  wounds,  the 
blood,  the  frenzy  and  corruption  of  Latin-American  repub- 
lics— resolved  to  implant  liberty  in  a  country  where  it  is 
detested,  especially  by  the  liberals;  where  the  only  liberty 
that  is  loved  is  unlimited  personal  liberty  and  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  liberty  of  others;  that  is  to  say,  in  a  country 
where  the  only  species  of  liberty  that  is  understood  is  that 
of  the  jackal  and  the  viper,  exemplified  by  the  exploits  of 
the  bandits,  "every  inch  men,"  who  have  terrorized  the 
land.  The  outcome  has  been  the  logical  consequence  of  the 
policy.  President  Wilson,  by  recognizing  a  de  facto  gov- 
ernment of  the  ultra-despotic  type,  after  having  refused  to 
recognize  the  Huerta  Government  because  it  was  dictatorial, 
1  Madero  por  uno  de  sus  intimos,  p.  146. 


WILSON'S  ATTEMPT  A  COSTLY  FIASCO     35 

has  practically  acknowledged  that  his  effort  to  implant 
liberty  in  Mexico  has  been  a  complete  failure.  It  is  even 
worse.  President  Wilson  has  not  recognized  a  de  facto 
government  but  a  de  facto  anarchy,  hoping  to  transform  it 
into  something  bearing  some  resemblance  to  a  government, 
in  order  to  save  himself  from  the  severe  arraignment  that 
awaits  him  at  the  hands  of  humanity. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  GREAT  FIASCO  OF  THE  MEXICAN  REVO- 
LUTIONISTS  AND   PRESIDENT  WILSON 
IN  THE  AGRARIAN  QUESTION 

MARVELLOUS    LANDS    AND    GRASPING    LANDHOLDERS 

SOME  excuse  and  perhaps  even  some  justification  may 
be  made  for  President  Wilson's  mistakes  as  a  states- 
man and  a  sociologist  in  regard  to  the  Mexican  po- 
litical situation;  but  he  has  also  failed  to  grasp  a  still 
greater  and  mort  important  question — the  agrarian  situa- 
tion. In  Mexico  this  has  been  incorrectly  styled  the  agrarian 
problem,  into  which  the  revolution  has  injected  the  ques- 
tion of  hunger — hunger  for  bread,  for  rights,  for  justice, 
for  civilization,  a  hunger  which  crushes  the  social  and  pri- 
vate lives  of  12,000,000  human  beings,  who  for  the  past 
four  hundred  years  have  been  the  victims  of  the  insufferable 
exploitation  of  a  handful  of  cruel  aristocrats,  insatiable  in 
their  greed  and  implacable — intrenched  behind  their  divine 
rights — in  their  oppression  of  the  people.  Such  is  the  revo- 
lutionary thesis.  It  is  clear,  then,  that  if  through  the  favor 
shown  by  President  Wilson  to  the  Mexican  revolutionists 
the  miserable  eighty-five  per  cent  of  this  downtrodden  popu- 
lation were  to  attain  prosperity,  President  Wilson  would  not 
figure  among  the  apostles  of  liberty  who  offer  to  the  people 
the  "rights  of  man,"  when  their  primary  need  is  bread,  meat, 
clothing,  comfortable,  hygienic  homes,  diversions,  idyllic  do- 
mestic scenes;  but  he  would  figure  among  the  teachers  and 
apostles  of  humanity  very  near  to  Christ  Himself. 

Don  Luis  Cabrera  has  rightly  said :  "La  Revolution  es  la 
Revolution"   (A  revolution  is  a  revolution),  which  is  only 

36 


THE   AGRARIAN    QUESTION  37 

another  way  of  saying  what  has  been  said  before :  "Pour  faire 
une  omelette  il  faut  casser  les  oeufs" ;  and  what  has  been  shat- 
tered beyond  the  power  of  belief  is  the  unfortunate  Mexican 
people.  But  apparently  this  tremendous  work  of  destruc- 
tion, carried  on  with  the  aid  of  crime,  war,  dementia,  the 
spirit  of  vengeance,  the  appetite  for  pillage  and  all  the  re- 
pugnant, antisocial  traits  of  prehistoric  savagery,  seems  to  be 
of  little  consequence  if  in  the  end  the  indigenous  race  be 
raised — even  over  the  terror-stricken,  bleeding  and  agonizing 
remnants  of  the  nation — to  a  height  capable  of  conferring 
upon  its  country  an  enviable  renown,  the  race  itself  flourish- 
ing in  the  maternal  bosom  of  the  "Republic  of  Solidarity." 

The  revolutionists  have  defined  the  agrarian  question  in 
the  following  terms,  accepted  by  Mr.  Wilson: 

First — That  Mexico  possesses  in  great  abundance  mar- 
vellous agricultural  lands  capable  of  feeding,  even  to  excess, 
an  enormous  population  of  one  hundred  million,  according 
to  some;  of  two  hundred  millions,  according  to  others;  and 
of  even  more,  according  to  those  who  more  closely  approxi- 
mate in  intelligence  the  inferior  vertebrates. 

Second — That  these  marvellous  lands  are  not  actively 
cultivated,  owing  to  the  fact  that  they  are  monopolized  by  a 
handful  of  cruel  landowners  who  hold  them  undeveloped, 
in  order  to  keep  up  the  price  of  necessary  commodities  and 
enjoy  the  enormous  gains  obtained  through  the  monopoly 
of  the  land,  which  once  belonged  to  the  Indians  and  which 
was  stolen  from  them  by  the  Spanish  conquerors. 

Such  is  the  fundamental  basis  of  the  social  upheaval  which 
has  submerged  Mexico  and  brought  it  into  such  unenviable 
prominence  before  the  nations  of  the  world. 

Before  discussing  the  important  and  far-reaching  prob- 
lems emanating  from  the  revolutionary  proposition,  it  is  nec- 
essary to  examine  it  calmly  and  dispassionately,  and  subject 
it  to  an  intelligent  analysis. 


38        WHOLE   TRUTH    ABOUT    MEXICO 

THE   FIRST   LIE 

A  formidable  fact  exists  in  our  economic  life  which  de- 
stroys the  spectacular  foundation  of  the  Mexican  Revolution. 
For  more  than  twenty  years  past  the  fiscal  statistics,  published 
monthly  and  annually  by  the  Mexican  Treasury  Depart- 
ment, show  a  yearly  increase  in  the  importation  of  corn  and 
wheat  from  the  United  States  or  the  Argentine.  These  im- 
portations are  greater  when  more  or  less  serious  failures  in 
the  corn  and  wheat  crops  occur  in  Mexico.  If  the  ignorant 
revolutionary  publicist  presumes  to  deny  this  fact,  President 
Wilson  may  verify  it  by  examining  the  export  and  import 
statistics  published  by  the  Federal  Government  of  the  United 
States,  where  in  plain  figures  may  be  found  the  exact  amount 
of  corn  and  wheat  exported  annually  to  Mexico. 

This  proves  that  not  even  in  the  years  when  the  yield  of 
corn  and  wheat  has  been  greatest  in  Mexico  has  the  output 
been  sufficient  for  the  needs  of  its  inhabitants,  from  which 
fact  it  may  be  deduced  that  Mexico  has  had  more  than 
twenty  years'  experience  of  the  impotency  of  her  lands  to 
contribute  enough  for  the  support  of  her  population. 

In  order  to  bolster  up  the  lie  of  the  great  richness  of 
Mexico's  corn-raising  lands,  the  revolutionists  assert  that 
this  impotence  is  intentional,  brought  about  by  the  avaricious- 
ness  of  the  landholders,  who,  wishing  to  keep  up  the  prices, 
cultivate  only  a  limited  area,  insufficient  to  meet  the  na- 
tional demands. 

Such  an  accusation  is  absurd,  as  will  presently  be  seen. 
According  to  the  agricultural  statistics  published  by  the  De- 
partment of  Fomento,1  the  annual  production  of  corn  varies 
in  the  best  seasons  from  50,000,000  to  60,000,000  hectolitres, 
and  if  the  lands  w*hich  produce  these  had  the  wonderful  fer- 
tility attributed  to  them  in  1803  by  Baron  Humboldt  (75 

1  Department  for  the  mining,  agricultural  and  industrial  devel- 
opment of  the  country. 


THE   AGRARIAN    QUESTION  39 

hectolitres  per  hectare)  it  would  be  necessary  to  cultivate 
only  800,000  hectares  to  produce  60,000,000  kilograms  of 
corn;  and  as  in  Mexico  one  man  is  required  for  the  culti- 
vation of  every  5  hectares  of  land,  it  follows  that  if  the 
marvellously  fertile  lands  of  1803  existed  at  present,  the 
grasping  landholders  would  employ  only  160,000  day  la- 
borers. By  what  means  have  the  remaining  1,800,000  lived, 
who  make  up  the  sum  total  of  our  day  laborers  and  who 
are  accounted  for  in  the  agricultural  statistics  issued  by  the 
Department  of  Fomento? 

Is  the  official  figure  of  the  number  of  day  laborers  en- 
gaged in  the  cultivation  of  corn  and  wheat  given  by  the 
Department  incorrect,  or  are  there  actually  only  160,000? 
If  two-thirds  of  these  laborers  are  heads  of  families,  and  each 
family  consists  on  an  average  of  five  persons,  and  if  there 
are  only  160,000  day  laborers  engaged  in  the  cultivation  of 
corn,  it  follows  that  Mexico  does  not  possess  12,000,000 
poor  inhabitants,  but  merely  a  laboring  population  of 
4,000,000. 

In  order  that  2,000,000  families  may  live  from  the  prod- 
uct of  the  land  set  aside  for  corn-raising,  it  is  indispensable 
that  the  yield  be  very  small  in  order  to  afford  an  opportun- 
ity to  employ  2,000,000  men  in  the  maximum  production  of 
60,000,000  hectolitres. 


THE    REGIME    OF    MISERY    IN    MEXICO. 

In  Mexico  there  are  three  distinct  divisions  of  land :  the 
hot  lands;  the  temperate  lands  and  the  cold  lands  of  the 
central  plateau,  and  the  semi-arid  lands  of  the  northern 
plateau.  The  majority  of  the  Mexican  population  is  found 
grouped  upon  the  central  plateau,  for  reasons  which  will 
later  be  explained.  Agriculture  will  not  flourish  where 
water  is  not  available,  and  nations,  which  do  not  command 
large  capital  for  the  construction  of  the  necessary  irrigation 


40        WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT    MEXICO 

plants  in  the  arid  regions,  are  driven  to  depend  in  their 
agricultural  work  upon  the  more  or  less  uncertain  rainfall. 

In  Mexico  this  factor  plays  an  important  part,  and  may 
be  considered  the  key  to  the  nation's  problem  of  poverty 
and  misery. 

Going  south  from  21°  north  latitude  to  the  boun- 
dary line  of  the  temperate  and  the  hot  zone,  the  mean 
precipitation  varies  between  o.m5OO  and  o.m75O  of  mean 
total  annual  precipitation.  Upon  entering  the  hot  zone 
— except  in  the  states  of  Campeche,  Yucatan  and  a  sec- 
tion of  the  state  of  Oaxaca — the  annual  precipitation  in- 
creases, exceeding  a  metre  in  the  Isthmus  of  Tehuantepec. 
The  mean  annual  precipitation  in  the  extensive  section  to 
which  I  refer  has  never  been  known  to  be  less  than  o.m3OO 
in  any  part  of  its  territory.  Consequently,  as  corn  and 
wheat  require  only  from  o.m25O  and  o.m3OO  of  precipitation, 
coinciding  with  the  time  of  its  cultivation,  and  as  this  pre- 
cipitation occurs  in  this  section  (from  the  21°  north  lati- 
tude to  the  frontier  of  Guatemala),  it  would  be  impossible 
to  have  a  single  failure  in  the  corn  crops,  provided,  of  course, 
that  the  requisite  amount  of  rainfall  were  not  wanting. 
From  the  21°  to  22°  north  latitude  the  mean  annual  pre- 
cipitation is  from  O.m45o  to  o.m55o;  but  the  minimum  pre- 
cipitation runs  as  low  as  o.m2OO,  which  means  scant  crops 
or  complete  failures. 

From  the  22°  to  24°  north  latitude  the  mean  annual  pre- 
cipitation is  from  o.m25O  to  o.m3OO,  but  the  maximum  precip- 
itation rises  as  high  as  o.m5oo,  and  the  minimum  falls  as  low 
as  o.mioo  to  o.m050.  North  of  the  24°  of  north  latitude 
the  maximum  precipitation  is  o.ra4Oo;  the  mean  from 
O.mi5O  to  o.m2OO  and  the  minimum  o.mooo.  It  will  be  seen 
from  the  foregoing  that,  taking  into  consideration  only  the 
total  annual  precipitation  in  the  southern  and  central  pla- 
teaus, extensive  agriculture  could  count  infallibly  on  good 
crops,  and  the  change  to  intensive  agriculture  could  be  made 


THE   AGRARIAN    QUESTION  41 

when  the  impoverishment  of  the  land  warranted  it.  In  the 
northern  plateau,  which  is  greater  in  area  than  the  central 
and  southern  plateaus  combined,  the  territory  between  the 
2  ist  and  the  24th  parallels  might  be  considered,  if  we  take 
into  consideration  only  the  annual  precipitation,  as  accepta- 
ble agricultural  land;  and  that  between  the  24th  parallel 
and  the  frontier  of  the  United  States,  as  a  very  extensive 
tract  suitable  for  the  development  of  a  rich  timber  industry 
in  the  Sierra  Madre,  and  for  extensive  cattle  raising  on 
the  plains. 

Unfortunately,  physical  conditions  in  Mexico  are  such  as 
to  present  grave  obstacles  to  the  progress  of  civilization  and 
the  improvement  of  the  people's  condition,  along  lines  pos- 
sible in  other  countries. 


.    THE    HIGH-WATER    MARK    OF    THE    REGIME   OF    MISERY 

North  of  the  22d  parallel,  owing  to  the  effect  which  the 
huge  mountain  ranges  have  had  in  diverting  the  rain  clouds, 
immense  salt  plains,  sparsely  covered  with  vegetation,  and 
great  sandy  deserts,  devoid  of  every  trace  of  plant  life — 
lacking  even  the  somber  growth  that  dots  the  great  deserts — 
have  been  formed.  North  of  Aguascalientes  we  have  the 
arid  Valle  del  Salado,  which  includes  a  great  part  of  the 
states  of  San  Luis  Potosi  and  Zacatecas,  merging  into  the 
Bolson  de  Mapimi,  a  still  more  extensive  desert,  which  em- 
braces the  greater  part  of  the  states  of  Coahuila,  Durango 
and  Chihuahua.  The  state  of  Coahuila  contains  still  another 
desert,  the  Barreal  de  la  Paila,  and  the  melancholy  deserts 
of  Sonora  are  well  known,  comprising,  as  they  do,  ninety-five 
per  cent  of  its  extensive  territory.  Lower  California  is  a 
gigantic  serpent  of  leaden-colored  mountains,  surrounded 
by  a  mournful,  grayish  desert,  furrowed  as  though  some 
huge  plough  had  Jbeen  forced  through  its  sands. 

Lower  California  covers  the  same  area  as  England,  but 


42        WHOLE   TRUTH    ABOUT    MEXICO 

its  agricultural  output  would  not  sustain  60,000  souls.  The 
state  of  Coahuila  has  an  area  of  165,000  square  kilometers 
and,  excepting  the  "Laguna"  region,  which  is  fertilized  by 
the  overflow  of  the  river  Nazas,  this  state  does  not  afford 
in  arable  land  even  one-half  of  one  per  cent  of  its  entire 
territory.  The  state  of  Chihuahua,  whose  territory  equals 
that  of  one-half  of  France,  possesses  only  50,000  hectares  of 
arable  land,  and  the  greater  part  of  this  is  irrigated.  The 
state  of  Durango,  with  the  exception  of  the  Valle  del  Suchil 
and  the  Valle  de  las  Poanas,  is  either  mountainous,  desert  or 
second-  or  fourth-rate  grazing  land.  The  greater  part  of 
the  states  of  San  Luis  Potosi  and  Zacatecas  is  arid,  and  not 
even  three  per  cent  of  their  entire  area  consists  of  arable 
lands.  The  states  to  which  I  have  referred  possess  an  area 
of  984,170  square  kilometers,  equivalent  to  one-half  the 
entire  area  of  Mexico,  a  half  which  for  the  present  can  be 
qualified  as  entirely  unfitted  for  agricultural  purposes.  This 
does  not  mean,  however,  that  the  inhabitants  of  these  states 
ever  cease  to  speak  of  the  remarkable  richness  of  their  privi- 
leged soil,  or  that  they  do  not  teach  in  the  public  and  private 
schools  of  these  states  a  choice  assortment  of  lies  concerning 
the  local  and  national  resources.  All  these  states  indisputa- 
bly possess  great  potential  wealth  in  their  mines,  some  of 
them  in  their  forests  and  grazing  lands;  but  their  claim  to 
great  agricultural  resources  is  an  absurdity. 

The  remaining  portion  of  Mexican  territory,  between  the 
22°  north  latitude  and  the  frontier  of  Guatemala,  is  ex- 
tremely mountainous.  Baron  Humboldt  estimates  that  more 
than  two-thirds  of  this  territory  is  occupied  by  mountain 
ranges  and  isolated  mountains,  and  a  mere  glance  at  an  oro- 
graphic  map  of  the  Republic  of  Mexico  is  all  that  is  needed 
to  convince  one  that  the  learned  Prussian's  estimate  is  amply 
justified.  Calculated  from  this  basis,  more  than  676,000 
square  kilometers  are  mountainous  and  unfit  for  the  cultiva- 
tion of  cereal  or  leguminous  products.  A  mountainous 


THE   AGRARIAN    QUESTION  43 

country  is  one  in  which  deep  gorges,  impassable  ravines  and 
great  stretches  of  sloping  lands,  washed  bare  by  the  rains, 
must  necessarily  abound.  It  is  also  necessary  to  separate  the 
summer  stubble  grazing  lands  from  the  fertile  section  we 
have  been  considering  in  order  to  arrive  at  a  correct  estimate 
of  the  arable  lands — outside  the  hot  zones — which  sustain 
the  great  majority  of  the  Mexican  people. 

In  short,  deducting  from  the  Mexican  territory  the  sec- 
tions occupied  by  the  great  mountain  chains  and  their  branch 
ranges  (which  are  considerable),  the  gorges,  the  ravines,  the 
sloping  lands,  the  immense  desert  tracts  (which  have  no,  or 
scarcely  no,  rainfall),  the  extensive  grazing  lands  and  the 
summer  stubble  pasture  lands  of  the  central  plateau,  there 
remain  available  for  the  cultivation  of  cereal  or  leguminous 
products  the  10,000,000  hectares  of  land,  designated  by  the 
report  of  the  Department  of  Fomento,  and  further  confirmed 
by  data  furnished  by  agricultural  corporations  and  political 
and  administrative  associations. 

A  country  whose  entire  area  consists  of  200,000,000 
hectares,  of  which  only  10,000,000  can  be  claimed  for  the 
cultivation  of  products  suitable  for  human  consumption, 
cannot  be  considered  an'  overwhelmingly  rich  country, 
scarcely  even  moderately  rich.  A  country  which  can  count 
only  upon  five  per  cent  of  its  lands  to  produce  the  elements 
from  which  its  population  must  directly  draw  its  life,  cannot 
be  considered  otherwise  than  distinctly  poor  in  this  respect. 

THE    DEATH    AGONY    OF    THE    MEXICAN    PEOPLE 

A  people  situated  as  is  the  Mexican  people,  with  only 
10,000,000  hectares  of  lands  capable  of  producing  cereal 
or  leguminous  products,  will  be  prosperous  or  wretched  ac- 
cording to  the  efforts  expended  upon  its  arable  section.  In 
France  the  production  is  under  intensive  cultivation  45 
hectolitres  per  hectare  of  corn,  and  10,000,000  hectares  of 


44        WHOLE   TRUTH    ABOUT    MEXICO 

productive  land  would  under  intensive  cultivation  produce 
450,000,000  hectolitres  of  corn  annually,  besides  at  least 
one-fourth  as  much  in  beans,  which  can  be  raised  in  the  same 
furrow  with  corn.  Corn,  combined  with  beans,  constitutes 
for  a  people  depending  upon  it  for  their  sustenance,  an  abso- 
lutely healthy,  hygienic  and  highly  nutritious  food.  Conse- 
quently, the  people  possessing  10,000,000  hectares  of  arable 
land  suitable  for  the  production  of  cereal  and  leguminous 
products,  can  maintain  a  population  of  90,000,000  in  a  region 
where  propitious  conditions  exist.  The  Mexican  people,  on 
the  other  hand,  numbering  only  15,000,000  and  possessing 
10,000,000  hectares  of  arable  land,  in  great  part  almost  ex- 
hausted and,  consequently,  meagre  in  its  yield,  is  nothing 
more  than  a  people  in  the  last  stages  of  dissolution. 

Baron  Humboldt,  in  his  Ensayo  Politico  sobre  la  Nueva 
Espaha,  based  upon  careful  and  conscientious  computation, 
assures  us  that  in  1803  the  average  yield  of  the  arable  lands 
was  150  grains  of  corn  for  every  grain  sown,  which  repre- 
sents 75  hectolitres  of  corn  harvested  per  hectare. 

In  the  Bole  tin  Mensual  de  la  Secretaria  de  Fomento,  for 
February,  1812,  published  by  the  Mexican  Government, 
there  appears  the  report  of  the  Cdmara  Nacional  Agricola 
de  Leon  (state  of  Guanajuato),  rendered  to  the  Depart- 
ment of  Fomento,  in  which  it  is  stated  that  the  average  pro- 
duction of  the  famous  lands  of  the  Bajio  has  fallen  to  8 
hectolitres  per  hectare.  I  cannot  at  this  moment  recall 
whether  it  is  in  No.  3  or  No.  4  of  the  said  bulletin  that  the 
average  of  these  corn  lands  for  the  year  1910  is  given,  show- 
ing a  fluctuation  of  from  8  to  10  hectolitres  per  hectare. 

From  these  figures,  which  are  not  those  of  the  Mexican 
demagogues,  the  subsidized  newspapers,  the  mediocre  states- 
men or  the  lay  apostle  devoid  of  learning,  some  idea  may  be 
formed  of  the  miserable  plight  of  the  Mexican  people  in  1915. 
If  the  lands  set  aside  for  the  cultivation  of  corn  in  1803 
yielded,  on  account  of  their  remarkable  fertility,  75  hecto- 


THE   AGRARIAN    QUESTION  45 

litres  per  hectare,  and  if  these  same  lands  yielded  only  8  to 
10  hectolitres  per  hectare  in  1910,  it  is  evident  that  if  the 
Mexican  people  continue  to  depend  upon  extensive  agricul- 
ture for  their  maintenance,  their  total  annihilation  by  star- 
vation is  near  at  hand.  This  is  all  the  more  certain  if  we 
take  into  consideration  that  in  1803  the  Mexican  population 
was  only  5,000,000,  whereas  now  it  is  15,000,000,  three 
times  more,  indicating  a  serious  situation  for  the  people  if 
the  decrease  in  the  productiveness  of  the  land  continues  at 
the  present  alarming  rate. 

It  will  not  be  necessary  for  this  decrease  in  productive- 
ness to  reach  its  lowest  limit  to  accomplish  the  complete  an- 
nihilation of  the  Mexican  people.  It  will  suffice  for  the 
production  to  be  reduced  to  3  hectolitres  per  hectare  to  de- 
prive the  laborer's  family  of  the  means  of  subsistence;  and  it 
will  surely  incapacitate  the  laborer  for  his  work,  because  of 
the  lack  of  proper  nourishment,  if  the  production  be  re- 
duced to  2  hectolitres  per  hectare. 

The  salvation  of  the  Mexican  people  is  easy  in  theory.  It 
will  suffice  to  have  them  pass  from  extensive  to  intensive 
agricultural  methods,  not  an  easy  or  practical  achievement, 
and  virtually  an  impossible  one  in  the  limited  time  that  the 
alarming  decrease  in  the  productiveness  of  the  land  makes 
imperative. 

From  the  foregoing  data  it  will  be  seen  that  the  Mexican 
agrarian  problem  cannot  be  solved  by  the  mere  distribution 
of  lands  which  in  a  very  short  time  will  be  practically  worth- 
less. The  agrarian  problem  consists  in  something  far  more 
difficult — the  creation  of  lands  for  the  people.  The  dis- 
tribution of  the  lands  for  the  continuance  of  extensive  agri- 
culture would  be  more  harmful  for  the  Mexican  people  than 
if  they  were  retained  by  the  landholders,  as  I  shall  presently 
show. 


46        WHOLE   TRUTH    ABOUT    MEXICO 

THE  REAL   PROBLEM 

"The  Sphinx  must  be  answered  or  Thebes  will  die!" 
Science  must  be  answered  or  Mexico  will  die!  The  ques- 
tion may  be  summed  up  as  follows: 

First — Can  the  Mexican  rural  population  pass  suddenly 
from  the  present  extensive  mode  of  cultivation,  notably 
crude,  to  the  intensive  method,  so  exactly  scientific? 

Second — Has  the  Indian  or  the  mestizo  the  economic, 
moral  or  intellectual  qualifications  to  enable  him  to  trans- 
form himself  into  a  scientific  farmer? 

Third — Supposing  the  foregoing  questions  are  satisfac- 
torily answered,  has  the  Mexican  laboring  class  time  suf- 
ficient in  which  to  make  its  own  the  indispensable  elements 
which  will  fit  it  to  carry  to  a  successful  finish  this  stupen- 
dous transformation? 

If  the  Mexican  revolution  fails,  the  avowed  purpose  of 
which,  according  to  its  apologists,  has  been  to  save  the  Indian 
from  hunger  and  uplift  him,  the  revolutionists  will  deserve 
the  execration  of  the  entire  civilized  world,  a  fate  which 
must  be  shared  by  Mr.  Wilson,  the  President  of  the  United 
States,  who  has  desired  to  figure  as  an  apostle  in  a  drama 
the  plot  of  which  he  has  never  understood. 

Intensive  agriculture  by  dry  farming  is  only  possible  where 
adequate  rainfall  conditions  prevail.  In  England,  Germany, 
France  and  Austria-Hungary,  and  in  parts  of  Italy,  Spain, 
Russia  and  the  United  States,  the  rainfall  is  sufficiently  reg- 
ular to  permit  the  undertaking  of  intensive  agriculture.  In 
England,  when  fourteen  per  cent  of  the  normal  crop  of 
even  one  section  is  lost,  owing  to  some  irregularity  in  the 
rainfall,  it  is  considered  a  calamity,  and  the  Germans  look 
upon  the  loss  of  ten  per  cent  of  their  crops  as  a  serious 
matter. 

The  Mexican  dry  farmer  is  a  luckless  gambler,  playing 
the  lottery  of  alternate  rain  and  drought  year  after  year, 


THE   AGRARIAN    QUESTION  47 

ending  always  in  bankruptcy.  He  sows  his  corn  and  expects 
that  the  crop  will  be  very  good;  fifty  per  cent  of  the  best 
yield;  twenty-five  per  cent;  five  per  cent,  or  nothing!  A  bad 
season,  or  a  disastrous  one,  is  not  an  unheard-of  phenomenon 
for  the  farmer.  He  may  experience  successively  four,  five, 
seven  or  ten  bad  years,  or  two  series  of  bad  years  interrupted 
by  one  or  two  good  ones.  There  are  series  of  good  seasons, 
but  they  are  always  shorter  than  the  bad  ones  and  do  not 
occur  as  frequently  as  the  latter.  The  Spaniards  introduced 
the  cultivation  of  all  cereals  into  America,  the  Indian  having 
hitherto  cultivated  only  corn;  and  corn  dry  farming  con- 
tinued to  prevail  in  New  Spain  because  the  uncertain  rain- 
fall did  not  permit  the  cultivation  on  a  large  scale  of  the 
other  cereals,  especially  wheat. 

Corn  has  been  imposed  on  the  Mexicans  by  their  climate. 
In  the  fertile  regions,  where  the  population  has  massed, 
there  are  no  years  of  drought,  but  during  these  years  there 
are  dry  months  which  too  frequently  suffice  to  destroy  crops. 
The  regular  rainy  season  occurs  in  Mexico  during  the 
months  of  June,  July,  August  and  September,  although  scant 
and  irregular  rains  sometimes  occur  in  March,  April,  May 
and  October. 

Every  one  versed  in  agricultural  matters  knows  the 
"ninety-day  corn,"  so  called  because  it  takes  this  length  of 
time  to  bring  it  to  maturity.  In  Mexico  it  cannot  be  ma- 
tured in  this  length  of  time  except  in  the  hot  zones,  because 
the  soil  cannot  furnish  the  required  amount  of  heat.  In 
the  temperate  zones  it  requires  one  hundred  and  twenty  days 
to  mature  the  ninety-day  corn,  and  in  the  cold  zone,  which 
comprises  the  most  extensive  corn-raising  area,  it  requires 
the  same  time  to  mature  this  as  it  does  to  mature  any  other 
kind — that  is,  six  or  seven  months,  and  it  consequently  in- 
curs the  risk  of  being  overtaken  by  the  farmer's  other  sworn 
foe — the  frost.  Frosts  are  ruinous  to  the  corn  if  they  occur 
from  the  second  fortnight  of  March  onward,  or  early  in 


48        WHOLE   TRUTH    ABOUT   MEXICO 

the  month  of  September.  They  have  been  known  to  occur 
at  any  time.  The  one  which  caused  the  great  famine  of 
1794,  which  carried  off  hundreds  of  thousands  of  souls,  took 
place  in  August.  It  is  the  exception,  however,  when  a  frost 
occurs  in  the  four  months  of  the  rainy  season,  and  one- 
hundred-and-twenty-day  crops  rarely  suffer,  whereas  the  six- 
and  seven-month  crops  are  frequently  lost.  The  most  ex- 
tensive tracts  of  cultivated  lands  in  Mexico  are  to  be  found 
at  a  great  height  above  the  sea  level,  and  for  this  reason  there 
is  constant  danger  of  losing  crops  by  unexpected  frosts. 

The  frosts  and  the  irregularity  of  the  rainfall  do  not  per- 
mit the  intensive  cultivation  or  dry  farming  of  any  cereal  or 
leguminous  products  in  Mexico  with  any  marked  degree  of 
success. 

MEXICO    ALWAYS    A    FAMINE-STRICKEN    NATION 

The  irregular  rainfall  has  been  the  cause  of  Mexico's 
almost  chronic  state  of  starvation,  even  in  the  days  when  its 
wonderfully  fertile  lands  could  have  sustained  a  population 
fifty  times  greater  than  that  which  Mexico  had  after  the 
Conquest,  when  the  Colonial  Government  had  established 
a  civilizing  tranquillity. 

All  honest  persons  who  plead  for  pity  for  the  Mexican 
Indian,  who  applaud  the  immolation  of  two  or  three  mil- 
lions of  Mexico's  inhabitants  on  the  altar  dedicated  to  the 
uplift  of  the  indigenous  race,  all  foreign  and  national  states- 
men who  consider  it  their  duty  to  intervene  in  "the  Mexican 
question,"  are  in  honor  bound  to  read  the  following  lines, 
relative  to  Mexico,  written  by  Baron  Humboldt:  "We  have 
yet  to  examine  the  physical  causes  which  almost  periodically 
check  the  natural  increase  of  the  Mexican  population.  These 
are  smallpox,  that  dread  disease  called  matlazahuatl  by  the 
natives,  and  above  all  famine,  the  effects  of  which  are  felt 
for  a  long  time  afterwards."1 

1  Humboldt,  Ensayo  politico  sobre  la  Nueva  Espana,  Vol.  I,  p.  64. 


THE   AGRARIAN   QUESTION  49 

Again,  quoting  the  same  author:  "A  third  obstacle  which 
retards  the  growth  of  the  population  of  New  Spain,  and 
perhaps  the  most  cruel  of  all,  is  famine"* 

Baron  Humboldt  laid  stress  upon  delivering  the  Indians 
from  this  scourge  which  constantly  menaced  them,  notwith- 
standing their  fertile  lands,  as  he  continues:  "The  frugality 
of  the  native  Aztec  is  almost  equal  to  that  of  the  Hindoo, 
and  the  frequent  famines  might  be  obviated  by  the  multipli- 
cation of  articles  suitable  for  cultivation  and  by  directing  the 
industry  toward  vegetable  products  more  easily  preserved  and 
transported  than  corn  and  starchy  products."2 

Humboldt  was  a  blind  believer  in  the  alimental  properties 
of  the  banana,  attributing  to  it  nutritious  qualities  equal  to 
those  of  wheat ;  and  as  the  cost  of  its  production  in  the  warm 
zones  is  very  much  less  than  that  of  any  of  the  cereals, 
the  solution  of  the  famine  problem  in  New  Spain,  according 
to  Humboldt,  was  to  be  found  in  having  recourse  to  the 
banana  as  a  popular  article  of  food.  Unfortunately,  chem- 
ical analysis,  which  failed  to  reveal  the  presence  of  proteins, 
and  the  physiological  progress  of  humanity,  have  rejected  it 
as  the  one  and  only  article  of  food  for  those  who  wish  to 
enjoy  health  and  mental  vigor  equal  to  the  demands  of  pres- 
ent-day civilization. 

Lastly,  Humboldt  says:  "The  disproportion  existing  be- 
tween the  growth  of  the  population  and  the  increase  of  the 
food  supply  through  cultivation,  renews  the  sad  spectacle  of 
famine  whenever,  through  a  great  drought,  or  some  other 
local  cause,  the  corn  crop  fails."3 

When  an  individual  or  a  people  accustomed  to  being  nour- 
ished only  by  healthful,  palatable  and  nutritious  foods,  such 
as  would  in  every  way  meet  the  requirements  of  any  civilized 
nation,  see  or  hear  that  individuals  or  peoples  eat  with  relish 
reptiles,  bugs,  slimy  deposits  from  stagnant  pools  and  things 

1  Humboldt,  Ensayo  politico  sobre  la  Neuva  Espana,  Vol.  I,  p.  67. 

2  Idem,  Vol.  I,  p.  310. 

3  Idem,  Vol.  I,  p.  68. 


50        WHOLE   TRUTH    ABOUT    MEXICO 

of  a  like  nature,  which  as  a  usual  thing  cause  disgust  and 
nausea,  it  must  be  admitted  that  this  perversion  of  the  nat- 
ural appetite  can  have  originated  only  in  the  torturing  pangs 
of  an  acute  hunger.  The  population  that  eats  with  relish 
such  loathsome  stuffs  must  have  been  driven  to  do  so  fre- 
quently from  necessity.  Only  thus  could  that  first  inevita- 
ble loathing  have  been  overcome  and,  by  perverting  the  taste, 
changed  something  which  must  at  first  have  been  nauseating 
into  a  palatable  article  of  food.  When  the  possessor  of  ex- 
cellent agricultural  lands  found  disgusting  substances  palata- 
ble as  food,  it  proved  that  there  must  have  existed  some  tre- 
mendous problem  in  their  development  which  forced  him  to 
put  the  life-giving  wheat  and  the  revolting  vermin  on  the 
same  level. 

The  historian  Clavijero  says:  "The  Indians  also  made  use 
of  a  slimy  substance  which  floats  on  the  waters  of  the  lake, 
drying  it  in  the  sun  and  preserving  it  to  eat  in  place  of 
cheese,  which  it  very  much  resembles  in  taste.  They  called 
it  tecuitlatl,  stone  excretion."1 

The  insect  which  the  Mexican  Indians  sell  at  the  present 
time  for  bird  food,  and  which  is  so  loathsome  in  appearance, 
was  and  still  is  considered  by  them  a  choice  delicacy. 

"The  small  insect  called  axayacatl  is  still  to  be  found 
and  is  the  same  that  the  Indians  peddle  in  the  streets  as  a 
bird  food. 

"Don  Pablo  de  la  Llave  classified  it  under  the  title  of 
ahuautlea  mexicana.  They  caught  these  in  such  large  quan- 
tities that  they  had  enough  for  their  own  consumption,  to 
feed  many  birds  and  to  sell  in  the  markets."2 

"They  ate  anenextl,  the  larvae  of  we  know  not  what  in- 
sect, in  the  stage  of  metamorphosis  round,  four-footed,  broad 
at  the  head  and  dark  in  color;  the  michfaili,  of  which  we 
know  as  much  as  we  do  of  the  preceding  one;  the  milpich- 

1  Clavijero,  Historia  Antigua,  Vol.  I,  p.  390. 

2  Orozco  y  Berra,  Historia  Antigua  de  Mexico,  Vol.  I,  p.  321. 


THE   AGRARIAN    QUESTION  51 

tetei,  which  is  similar;  the  izcahuilli,  a  red  worm  which  ap- 
parently has  no  head,  having  a  tail  at  both  extremities;  the 
atopinan,  dark-colored,  and  the  oculiztac,  black,  but  which 
turned  white  when  toasted. 

"They  also  availed  themselves  for  food  of  certain  loath- 
some animals;  snakes,  even  the  terrible  rattlesnake  (crosta- 
lus  rhombifer),  first  cutting  off  the  head;  scorpions,  from 
which  they  removed  the  poisonous  dart;  lizards,  cuauhquetz- 
palin  (Cyclura  pectinata,  Weig;  Cyclura  acantura,  Gray; 
iguana  rhinolofa,  Weig),  of  which  species  they  ate  not  only 
the  meat  but  also  the  eggs.  They  ate  a  species  of  ant  like 
those  called  azcamoli  and  the  necuazactl,  or  honey  ant,  from 
which  they  sucked  a  sweetish  fluid;  locusts,  chapolin,  espe- 
cially that  called  acachapolin;  worms  which  breed  in  the 
maguey,  meocuilin,  and  those  that  breed  in  the  ears  of  corn, 
etc.,  etc."1 

By  the  reading  of  Baron  Humboldt's  book  (the  only  stu- 
dent who  ever  wrote  realities  about  Mexico),  the  states- 
man, even  though  he  be  mediocre — and  for  him  the  reading 
becomes  a  duty — will  reach  the  conclusion  that  the  Mexi- 
can people  in  1803  were  already  a  people  long  used  to  the 
ravages  of  famine,  presenting  the  truly  sad  spectacle  of  a 
nation  which  in  three  centuries  had  barely  doubled  its 
meagre  population  of  2,000,000  existing  at  the  time  that 
the  stable  Colonial  Government  replaced  the  period  of 
Conquest.  And  these  conditions  existed  notwithstanding 
its  immense  territory  (New  Spain  comprised  also  the  states 
of  Texas,  New  Mexico,  Arizona  and  California),  which 
afforded  ample  lands  for  cultivation  and  for  the  mainte- 
nance of  more  than  100,000,000  human  beings. 

As  it  is  mainfestly  impossible  for  a  constitutionally 
starved  people  to  be  a  rich  people,  the  oft-reiterated  state- 
ment of  Mexico's  great  natural  agricultural  wealth,  out- 

1  Orozco  y  Berra,  Historia  Antigua  de  Mexico,  Vol.  Ill,  p.  161. 


52        WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT   MEXICO 

side  the  warm  zone,  has  been  a  lie  fabricated  by  Mexicans, 
not  by  Baron  Humboldt. 

The  joint  action  of  three  leading  factors,  the  irregularity 
of  the  rains,  the  frosts  and  the  impoverishment  of  the  arable 
lands  by  centuries  of  extensive  agriculture,  has  brought 
about  an  intolerable  condition. 

By  way  of  illustration,  let  us  take  1,000  hectares  of  land 
as  good  as  some  that  is  to  be  found  in  the  Valle  del  Suchil 
and  that  of  las  Poanas  in  Durango,  which  in  a  good  year 
are  capable  of  yielding  as  much  as  200  hectolitres  of  corn 
per  hectare.  The  cost  of  working  a  hectare  of  Mexican 
land  by  the  extensive  method  of  cultivation  is  scarcely 
20  pesos,  including  such  items  as  rent,  general  expenses, 
taxes,  interest  on  capital  invested,  and  a  good  profit  for 
the  planter.  This,  however,  is  the  cost  of  cultivation  of 
one  hectare  of  non-yielding  crop,  not  including,  therefore, 
the  cost  of  harvesting,  transportation,  storage  and  thrashing, 
If  a  planter  cultivates  1,000  hectares  and  has  a  total  loss  of 
crops  for  a  period  of  ten  years,  he  has  lost  200,000  pesos. 
But  if  in  the  eleventh  he  happens  to  reap  an  excellent  crop, 
he  gets  200,000  hectolitres  of  corn,  which,  sold  at  3  pesos 
a  hectolitre,  would  bring  him  600,000  pesos,  balancing 
the  loss  of  the  poor  years  and  giving  him  a  large  profit. 
This  example  proves  that  the  planter  may  prosper  notwith- 
standing the  irregularity  of  the  rains. 

But  when  the  lands  are  exhausted,  as  is  the  case  in  the 
district  of  Bajio,  and  the  yield  in  favorable  seasons  has 
fallen  as  low  as  8  hectolitres  per  hectare,  it  requires  only 
one  bad  year  for  every  two  good  ones  to  ruin  the  planter. 
This  is  precisely  what  has  happened  in  Mexico.  The  con- 
stant decrease  in  the  productiveness  of  the  arable  lands  has 
created  an  intolerable  situation  for  the  planter  and,  conse- 
quently, also  for  the  Indian.  And  if  the  planter,  who  can 
counterbalance  these  losses  by  reducing  his  expenses,  by  tak- 
ing his  family  to  live  at  the  plantation  in  order  to  econo- 


THE   AGRARIAN   QUESTION  53 

mize,  by  mortgaging  his  property,  by  big  loans  from  banks 
and  money-lenders,  finally  ends  in  bankruptcy,  how  could 
the  Indian  meet  the  situation  as  an  independent  planter, 
having  none  of  the  resources  of  the  landed  proprietor?  It 
is  certain  that  the  great  majority  of  the  eighty-five  per  cent 
of  the  Mexican  population — that  eighty-five  per  cent  which 
is  President  Wilson's  "passion" — was  horribly  destitute 
prior  to  the  revolution  of  1910.  The  chief  cause  of  its 
misery,  however,  is  not  to  be  found  in  its  want  of  liberty, 
its  lack  of  universal  suffrage,  in  the  Cientificos,  in  dictator- 
ships, landowners,  plutocrats,  individuals  or  corporations, 
but  in  its  climate.  If,  as  Baron  Humboldt  has  said  and 
facts  have  proven,  the  Mexican  nation  was  famine-stricken 
when  it  had  at  its  disposal  the  most  fertile  lands  in  the 
world,  capable  of  feeding  a  population  fifty  times  greater 
than  that  which  it  had  in  1600,  it  is  offensive  for  men  of 
supposed  learning  and  culture  to  attribute  the  misery  of 
the  Mexican  people  exclusively  to  a  handful  of  individuals 
who  have  put  in  an  appearance  only  within  the  last  gen- 
eration. 

The  solution  of  the  Mexican  problem  and  the  salvation 
of  its  people  is  to  be  found,  as  I  have  previously  said,  in 
the  substitution  of  the  intensive  method  of  cultivation  for 
the  extensive.  But  this  cannot  be  accomplished  by  the  sim- 
ple recommendations  of  the  peevish  professors  of  the  School 
of  Agriculture  in  the  City  of  Mexico  and  the  clamors  of 
the  self-appointed  sages  who  are  constantly  doling  out  ad- 
vice upon  subjects  that  are  quite  beyond  the  reach  of  their 
intellectual  equipment. 

The  cost  of  harrowing  and  sowing  one  hectare  of  land 
in  Mexico,  destined  for  corn  dry  farming,  does  not  exceed 
12  pesos;  and  if  the  crop  is  lost  there  is  no  further  expense 
to  be  incurred.  A  planter  who  owns  1,000  hectares  of 
arable  land,  estimated  at  about  300  pesos  each,  would  have 
a  capital  of  3,000  pesos,  and  the  loss  of  his  crop  would 


54        WHOLE   TRUTH    ABOUT    MEXICO 

mean  the  loss  of  12,000  pesos.  But  if  he  undertakes  the 
intensive  method,  the  cost  of  cultivation  per  hectare  in 
Mexico  for  a  non-yielding  crop  cannot  be  less  than  80  pesos, 
and  the  loss  of  the  planter  who  cultivated  1,000  hectares 
would  be  in  a  single  year  80,000  pesos;  and  in  three  bad 
seasons  out  of  ten,  or  perhaps  out  of  five,  or  out  of  three,  he 
would  be  totally  ruined.  Intensive  agriculture,  in  order  to 
be  a  success  and  to  safeguard  the  interests  of  the  planter, 
must  be  able  to  depend  upon  assured  crops;  and  as  in 
Mexico,  on  account  of  the  irregularity  of  the  rains  and 
the  frosts,  such  a  guarantee  cannot  be  given,  it  is  impossible, 
in  the  face  of  scientific  evidence  and  in  the  interests  of 
the  planter  and  of  the  Mexican  people  themselves,  to  intro- 
duce the  intensive  method  of  cultivation,  unless  the  security 
of  the  crops  has  first  been  guaranteed  by  the  installation  of 
adequate  irrigation  facilities. 

Irrigation  alone,  however,  will  not  enable  the  Indian  to 
establish  intensive  cultivation  in  Mexico.  Other  condi- 
tions must  prevail,  which  I  shall  endeavor  to  make  clear 
as  we  progress  with  this  necessarily  cursory  review  of  our 
interesting  but  somewhat  somber  social  problem. 

THE  SECOND  LIE 

Since  the  declaration  of  our  independence,  no  lie  has  been 
more  thoroughly  exploited  by  agitators  to  enlist  the  sym- 
pathies of  really  high-minded  persons,  to  whom  the  condi- 
tion of  the  Indian  makes  a  genuine  appeal,  than  that  which 
attributes  the  really  abject  condition  of  the  indigenous  race 
to  the  criminal  wickedness  of  the  white  man,  above  all  to 
that  of  the  egotistical  planter,  "wanton  and  cruel." 

"The  Indian"  stands  for  the  race,  and  when  examining 
the  life  of  the  race,  and  the  devious  and  thorny  ways  of 
its  development,  the  condition  of  the  majority  is  to  be  con- 
sidered, because  only  a  majority  is  representative.  It  is 


THE   AGRARIAN    QUESTION  55 

unscientific,  to  say  the  least,  to  designate  a  race  as  unfor- 
tunate because  this  happens  to  be  the  condition  of  the 
minority. 

During  the  Colonial  regime  the  natives  were  divided 
into  four  groups:  the  domestic,  employed  as  servants  by 
the  mestizos,  Creoles  and  Spaniards,  whose  position  enabled 
them  to  hire  servants;  the  carriers;  the  plantation  workers 
and  the  village  dwellers,  the  latter  divided  among  villages 
formed  exclusively  of  Indians.  The  first  was  very  small 
because,  from  the  time  of  the  Conquest  to  that  of  independ- 
ence, the  population  of  the  cities  was  fifteen  per  cent  lower 
than  that  of  the  rural  districts;  the  second  was  also  small, 
because  the  introduction  of  beasts  of  burden  by  the  Spaniards 
greatly  reduced  the  necessity  of  employing  the  natives  in 
this  capacity;  and  the  third  was  likewise  small,  owing  to 
the  stringent  law  enacted  against  plantation  owners.  This 
law  required  that  when  the  Indians  of  a  plantation  reached 
a  fixed  number,  it  should  automatically  become  a  village,  to 
which  the  immediately  outlying  territory  was  assigned  to 
be  held  in  common  for  the  benefit  of  the  inhabitants.  The 
owner  had  not  the  right  to  reclaim  his  lands  or  to  demand 
indemnity  for  their  expropriation.  All  chroniclers  and  his- 
torians agree  that  the  majority  of  the  natives  were  con- 
centrated in  the  villages. 

It  is  not  true  that  the  villages  were  established  by  the 
Conquerors  or  by  the  Colonial  Government.  They  were 
founded  by  the  Aztecs,  the  needs  of  the  inhabitants  being 
considered  and  the  necessary  amount  of  land  assigned  to 
each  family,  as  well  as  pasturage  and  timber  lands.  The 
land  was  apportioned  to  the  heads  of  families,  to  be  held 
by  them  as  sole  owners  during  their  lifetime,  and  in  such 
proportion  as  they  were  able  to  work  alone,  or  with  the 
help  of  their  sons  when  these  reached  the  working  age. 
The  hills  and  the  pasture  lands  were  held  in  common.  The 
Conquerors  gave  proof  of  their  adaptability  and  beneficence 


56        WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT   MEXICO 

by  respecting  this  Aztec  organization,  which  was  loved  and 
revered  by  the  Indians  and  which  met  their  moral  aspira- 
tions and  economic  needs.  It  is  not  true,  therefore,  that 
the  Spaniards  despoiled  the  poor  Indians  of  their  lands,  for 
the  simple  reason  that  they  did  not  possess  them  in  the  sense 
of  personal  ownership,  to  be  passed  on  to  his  descendents, 
and  their  ancient  regulations  were  scrupulously  respected  by 
the  Conquerors.  The  despoiled  were  the  high-caste  Aztecs, 
the  imperial  family  and  the  military  and  sacerdotal  castes, 
who  were  the  oppressors  of  the  Indians.  Three-fourths  of 
New  Spain  was  not  under  the  dominion  of  any  government, 
but  was  populated  by  savage  hunting  tribes,  who,  owing  to 
the  absence  of  cattle,  had  not  even  attained  to  a  pastoral 
existence.  In  no  land  have  these  roaming,  savage  tribes 
ever  laid  claim  to  rights  of  property,  nor,  in  fact,  do  they 
.understand  them;  and  never  has  it  entered  the  mind  of 
sociologist,  moralist,  theologian,  historian  or  jurist,  ancient 
or  modern,  to  consider  the  wild  hunting  tribes  as  the  pro- 
prietors of  the  lands  they  occupy  in  common  with  the  wild 
beasts  of  the  forests.  This  has  been  the  chosen  work  of  the 
demagogue. 

The  aristocracies  of  the  aboriginal  races  and  of  the  Aztec 
imperial  regime,  which  possessed  a  civilization  in  a  barbaric 
age,  suffered  from  the  Spaniards  only  what  they  had  im- 
posed upon  other  nations  and  tribes  by  the  right  of  conquest. 
It  is  indefensible  to  deny  the  rights  of  conquest  to  the  Span- 
iards and  to  grant  them  to  the  Aztecs,  who  had  in  reality 
exercised  their  prerogative  of  conquest  much  more  freely 
and  cruelly  than  the  Spaniards.  If  we  begin  to  question 
the  rights  of  conquest  and  to  assert  the  property  rights  of 
aboriginal  races,  we  shall  arrive  at  a  point  where  we  shall 
have  logically  to  return  the  lands  to  the  zoological  species 
inferior  to  man,  until  we  end,  if  we  believe  in  the  theory 
of  evolution,  in  granting  the  rights  of  property  to  the  primi- 
tive, microscopic  vegetable  organisms. 


THE   AGRARIAN   QUESTION  57 

CIVIL    OPPRESSION    ALSO    A    LIE 

Inasmuch  as  the  great  majority  of  the  aboriginal  race  in 
New  Spain  lived  in  villages,  it  is  in  these  that  we  must 
seek  to  study  their  social  condition,  because,  as  I  have 
already  said,  only  the  majority  in  any  aggregation  can  repre- 
sent it,  in  whatever  sense  one  may  interpret  the  representa- 
tion. 

Under  the  Aztec  regime  the  Indians  of  the  villages  paid 
heavy  tribute  to  the  sacerdotal  and  military  castes  and  also 
to  the  Crown.  They  were  bound  to  military  duty  and  to 
service  without  remuneration  in  certain  civil  positions,  and 
to  interminable  campaigns  in  the  interests  of  an  aggressive 
empire,  which  lightly  provoked  and  undertook  bloody  and 
exhausting  wars.  Their  legislation,  like  that  of  all  bar- 
barous nations,  was  severe  and  abused  the  right  of  torture 
and  the  death  penalty  with  unheard-of  atrociousness. 

It  is  impossible  to  doubt,  putting  aside  the  depredations 
and  crime  of  the  Conquerors,  and  after  the  abolition  of  the 
"encomiendas"  in  the  seventeenth  century,  that  the  social 
condition  of  the  aboriginal  race  was  better  than  that  of 
any  people  in  the  world,  except  the  Anglo-Saxon  peoples. 
The  introduction  by  the  Spaniards  of  live  stock  was  an 
inestimable  benefit  to  the  aborigines,  the  use  of  horses,  mules 
and  asses  relieving  the  Conquerors  of  the  inevitable  necessity 
of  employing  the  Indians  in  the  exhausting  capacity  of  beasts 
of  burden.  All  tributes  heretofore  levied  were  reduced  to 
a  single  moderate  tax  under  the  head  of  poll-tax.  The 
Indians  were  free  from  the  arduous  labors  of  war,  being 
exempt  from  military  service.  They  also  enjoyed  the  privi- 
lege of  not  being  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  tribunal  of 
the  Inquisition;  and  in  the  celebrated  code,  Legislation  de 
Indias,  many  benevolent  dispositions  appear  in  favor  of  the 
Indians  which  greatly  reduced  their  liability  to  the  death 
penalty. 


58        WHOLE   TRUTH    ABOUT    MEXICO 

So  far  as  economic  conditions  were  concerned,  the  Indians 
were  far  above  all  the  rural  populations  of  the  world  except 
the  English  colonists  of  North  America.  The  Indian  re- 
ceived from  the  authorities  representing  the  village  in  which 
he  was  a  dweller,  land  equivalent  to  seven  and  one-half 
hectares,  which  lie  was  to  cultivate  in  the  capacity  of  life- 
owner.  He  could  pasture  his  individual  herds  in  communal 
lands,  and  he  also  had  the  right  to  cut  whatever  timber  he 
needed  from  the  hills  for  firewood  and  building  purposes. 
He  could  also  obtain  permission  to  exploit  these  timber 
lands,  and  was  permitted  to  keep  the  proceeds  of  any  sales 
he  might  make.  In  return  for  these  privileges  the  Indian 
was  expected  to  make  certain  contributions  to  the  public 
fund,  which  all  historians  agree  to  have  been  insignificant, 
and  to  furnish  a  certain  quantity  of  seeds. 

Under  such  a  mild,  paternal  organization,  one  which 
might  be  readily  envied  by  the  rural  inhabitants  of  any  part 
of  the  world  except  the  colonists  of  North  America,  the 
Indian  would  have  lived  in  a  bed  of  roses  if  the  climate 
had  been  other  than  it  was. 

In  the  abstract,  agricultural  lands  cannot  be  said  to  be 
either  rich  or  poor  or  to  figure  in  the  economic  problem; 
climatic  conditions  will  be  the  key-note  of  their  fertility. 
For  the  intellectual  as  well  as  for  the  ignorant  Mexican,  it 
suffices  that  land  be  unusually  fertile  to  be  described  as 
marvellously  rich.  Now,  marvellously  rich  lands  are  those 
which  lend  themselves  to  continual,  or  almost  continual, 
cultivation,  assuring  a  large  profit  for  the  owner.  Agri- 
culture, besides  fertile  land,  demands  water,  heat,  light, 
favorable  winds,  electricity  and  magnetism. 

In  Mexico  all  the  favorable  conditions  except  water  are 
to  be  found;  otherwise,  even  with  a  regular  rainfall,  the 
Mexican  lands  could  not  have  reached  the  degree  of  exploi- 
tation that  their  fertility  made  possible.  Agriculture  draws 
its  necessary  water  supply  from  snow  that  is  absorbed  by 


THE   AGRARIAN    QUESTION  59 

the  earth;  from  streams  that  intersect  the  lands;  from 
showers  that  gently  nourish;  from  an  average  rainfall  in  all 
the  months  of  the  year;  from  two  rainy  seasons  in  the  same 
territory;  from  a  single  rainy  season,  covering  a  given  area 
of  territory,  at  different  times  of  the  year,  in  different  sec- 
tions. In  Mexico  the  most  unfavorable  of  all  conditions 
prevails — one  rainy  season  a  year,  short  and  irregular,  and 
embracing  the  entire  Mexican  territory. 

Few  persons  understand  the  moral  effect  that  this  un- 
favorable condition  has  had  upon  the  work  and  the  progress 
of  the  nation.  The  planter,  be  he  proprietor  or  laborer, 
must  have  land  that  lends  itself  to  cultivation  during  the 
entire  farming  year;  that  is,  three  hundred  days,  or  at  least 
three-fourths  of  the  farming  year.  And  when  it  is  a  ques- 
tion of  the  alimentation  of  human  beings  and  of  the  raising 
of  products  suitable  for  the  manufacture  of  fabrics  for 
clothing,  it  is  evident  that  the  tiller  of  the  soil  can  do  so 
to  advantage  only  when  he  can  work  it  for  the  greater  part 
of  the  year. 

As  Mexico  has  but  one  rainy  season  of  four  months  the 
nation  had  inevitably  to  fall  under  the  scourge  of  this  re- 
stricted food  production.  An  agriculture  destined  to  carry 
a  nation  into  the  first  ranks  of  civilization  must  be  an  agri- 
culture capable  of  producing  a  variety  of  food  products.  As 
corn,  however,  is  almost  exclusively  the  food  of  the  greater 
part  of  the  Mexican  people,  it  must  necessarily  follow  that 
they  aim  to  make  the  most  of  the  one  short,  irregular  rainy 
season  for  its  cultivation.  And  as  this  cultivation,  what- 
ever may  be  the  time  it  lasts  in  the  temperate  and  cold 
lands,  does  not  afford  the  owner  or  the  laborer  more  than 
from  one  hundred  and  ten  to  one  hundred  and  twenty 
working  days,  it  follows  that  the  great  agricultural  popula- 
tion of  Mexico,  which  at  one  time  was  made  up  exclusively 
of  the  aboriginal  race,  can  count  for  its  laboring  class  only 
upon  one  hundred  and  twenty  working  days  a  year  at  the 


60        WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT   MEXICO 

most,  and  for  its  proprietor  class  upon  one  hundred  and 
twenty  business  days.  What  can  this  working  population 
do  to  support  itself,  or  to  progress  with  its  work,  during 
the  two-thirds  of  the  year  it  is  forced  to  be  idle?  Plant 
other  products?  How  irrigate  them?  No,  as  I  have 
already  said,  as  Mexico  has  no  snow-covered  lands,  no  two- 
fold rainy  season,  no  average  rainfall  during  all  the  year, 
not  even  a  long  rainy  season  of  seven  or  eight  months,  the 
population  engaged  in  the  corn-raising  industry  is  obliged 
to  suspend  field  work  for  eight  months  of  the  year,  even 
though  they  may  not  be  consecutive. 

Could  this  agricultural  population  at  any  time  have  dedi- 
cated itself  to  industrial  pursuits  during  the  time  it  could 
not  work  in  the  fields?  No,  because  Mexico  is  not,  nor  has 
it  ever  been,  an  industrial  nation.  The  only  industry  that 
flourished  during  the  Colonial  epoch  was  the  mining  in- 
dustry, and  this,  according  to  Baron  Humboldt,  afforded 
work  to  only  30,000  men.  Could  this  agricultural  popula- 
tion have  taken  up  extensive  cattle  raising?  No,  because 
in  the  agricultural  region,  properly  so  called,  the  stubble 
grazing  lands  are  bad  for  cattle.  The  winds  in  the  foot- 
hills, coming  generally  from  the  north  and  traversing  the 
immense  hot,  dry  deserts,  gradually  lose  their  humidity,  and 
when  they  reach  the  central  plateau,  their  hygrometric  de- 
gree, already  quite  low,  makes  them  act  as  huge  evaporating 
machines  which  draw  the  moisture  from  the  ground  and 
scorch  the  pastures.  The  cattle  of  the  central  plateau  are 
obliged  to  graze  during  eight  months  of  the  year  in  parched 
and  burnt  pastures  of  an  inferior  quality  under  which 
they  degenerate  notably,  presenting  a  miserable,  sickly 
appearance.  On  the  other  hand,  the  number  of  workers 
employed  even  in  extensive  cattle  raising  is  very  small  in 
comparison  with  the  number  required  for  extensive  agricul- 
ture. 

Neither   could   the   agricultural   population,    idle   during 


THE   AGRARIAN   QUESTION  61 

two-thirds  of  the  year,  transform  itself  into  merchants,  con- 
sidering that  it  represents  eighty-five  per  cent  of  the  total 
population.  Not  being  able  to  turn  to  manufacturing,  cat- 
tle raising,  commerce  or  even  fishing — for  the  death-dealing 
climate  has  swept  the  waters  of  our  shores  clean  of  almost 
all  piscine  life — this  unfortunate  agricultural  population  has 
found  itself  obliged  to  resign  itself  to  two  calamities: 
live  for  the  entire  year  upon  the  earnings  of  one  hundred 
and  twenty  days'  work,  and  submit  to  a  life  of  idleness, 
fulfilling  the  sentence  of  the  well-known  Spanish  proverb: 
"La  ociosidad  es  la  madre  de  todos  los  vicios"  (Idleness  is 
the  mother  of  all  vices) .  It  is  the  climate  that  has  made  the 
Indian  lazy,  apathetic,  lethargic,  poor  and  vicious. 

Moreover,  nature  has  not  only  heavily  handicapped 
Mexico  in  the  matter  of  rainfall  and  wind  currents,  but  it 
has  imposed  still  another  stupendous  handicap.  The  high 
central  plateau  is  surrounded  by  mountains  which  keep 
it  at  a  varying  altitude  of  from  between  2,000  and  2,200 
meters  above  the  sea  level,  excepting  in  the  Bajio  region, 
which  is  over  120  kilometers  in  length.  The  annual  rain- 
fall in  the  central  plateau  is  excellent,  as  total  annual  pre- 
cipitation, and,  as  I  have  already  mentioned,  meteorological 
observations  embracing  the  past  fifty  years  only  note  one  case 
of  minimum  precipitation  of  300  millimeters;  the  maximum 
is  from  800  to  900  millimeters,  and  the  mean  equals  those 
of  the  most  fertile  districts  of  France.  From  this  volumin- 
ous quantity  of  water,  shed  upon  these  immense  mountain 
ranges  that  surround  the  central  plateau,  mighty  rivers 
ought  to  spring,  which,  flowing  through  the  foot-hills  and 
toward  the  north,  once  they  had  passed  the  Bajio,  would 
fertilize  the  line  of  deserts  from  the  Valle  del  Salado  to 
the  end  of  the  Bolson  de  Mapimi.  But  it  occurred  to 
Mother  Nature  to  place  still  another  handicap  upon  the 
Mexicans — an  abominable  geological  configuration. 

As  a  general  thing,  the  mountain  ranges,  instead  of  shed- 


62        WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT   MEXICO 

ding  the  water  received  by  the  watersheds  which  touch  the 
foot-hills,  drink  it  with  avidity,  carrying  it  down  to  great 
depths,  and  finally  ejecting  it  upon  the  rugged  surface  of 
the  watersheds  which  unite  the  foot-hills  with  the  coast.  As 
these  are  narrow  the  result  is  that  from  the  sides  of  the 
huge  mountain  chain  streams  jut  forth  which  might  be 
utilized  for  motor  power,  but  which  are  not  available  for 
navigation  or  irrigation. 

As  there  are  only  three  rivers  in  the  foot-hills,  the  Atoyac, 
the  Panuco  and  the  Rio  Lerma — called  "Rio  Grande"  after 
it  leaves  the  Laguna  de  Chapala — all  for  the  most  part 
insignificant  in  the  higher  lands,  it  is  not  possible  to  obtain 
irrigation  or  motor  power,  so  indispensable  in  the  agricul- 
tural problem,  at  low  cost  in  the  foot-hills. 

The  populations  that  live  upon  wheat  and  corn  must 
grind  the  grain  in  order  to  convert  it  into  flour  or  pulp 
suitable  for  culinary  purposes.  The  windmill  has  been  the 
saving  device  of  farming  populations,  but  in  Mexico,  for 
reasons  well  known  to  the  real  student  of  economics,  wind- 
mills have  not  given  satisfaction;  the  self-evident  proof 
being  that  their  use  has  not  spread,  although  they  have 
been  known  since  the  time  of  the  Spanish  Conquest  and 
were  for  Mexican  agriculturists  of  great  and  urgent  neces- 
sity. This  failure  to  generalize  the  use  of  the  windmill  has 
kept  the  aborigines  wedded  to  the  calamitous  mistake  of 
turning  the  mother  of  the  family  into  a  corn-grinding  ma- 
chine. The  process  of  reducing  to  pulp  corn  that  has  been 
soaked  in  hot  water  and  softened  in  lye  water,  a  purely  me- 
chanical labor  which  at  best  ought  not  to  take  more  than  a 
quarter  of  an  hour  if  done  by  a  mill,  consumes  eight  hours 
or  more,  reducing  the  woman  to  the  level  of  a  beast  of 
burden  and  depriving  the  home  of  a  revenue  equal  to  one- 
half  a  day's  wages.  The  woman  grinds  corn  all  the  year 
and  loses  in  the  three  hundred  days  of  arduous  work  the 
equivalent  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  days'  wages;  that  is  to 


THE   AGRARIAN    QUESTION  63 

say,  she  loses  more  than  the  Indian  makes  in  the  whole  year 
cultivating  corn,  which  affords  only  one  hundred  and  twenty 
working  days.  In  the  event  that  windmills  are  not  used, 
an  agricultural  people  can  turn  to  motor  power,  not  of 
falls,  but  of  river  currents  applied  to  mills.  These  can  be 
built  on  both  banks  of  a  river  and  along  its  entire  length, 
wherever  the  current  is  sufficient  to  produce  the  power. 
But  as  Mexico  lacks  rivers  as  well,  it  would  seem  that 
nature  has  denied  to  this  farming  nation  all  of  the  power- 
ful assets  that  would  assure  its  wTell-being  and  advancement. 
With  the  assured  rainfall,  the  winter  snows  and  other 
advantages  common  in  England,  France  and  Belgium,  and 
in  the  greater  part  of  Germany,  Hungary  and  Poland, 
Mexico  would  have  raised  the  aboriginal  race  to  a  consid- 
erable height,  albeit  it  is — with  all  due  respect  to  other 
opinions — an  inferior  race.  China,  peopled  by  an  inferior 
race,  possesses  flourishing  agriculture,  and  the  condition  of 
its  enormous  population  is  satisfactory.  Mexico,  with  the 
rainfall  conditions  that  prevail  in  France,  would  have  at- 
tracted a  large  percentage  of  white  immigrants,  who  by 
intermarriage  would  have  modified  the  Mexican  race,  and 
Mexico  at  the  present  time  would  be  a  nation  of  50,000,- 
ooo  or  60,000,000  inhabitants,  rich,  educated,  happy;  its 
strength  an  ample  guarantee  that  the  United  States  would 
never  attempt  to  dispute  its  sovereignty,  and  that  no  Ameri- 
can President  would  ever  dare,  as  Mr.  Wilson  has  dared, 
in  the  guise  of  a  socialist  apostolate,  to  amuse  himself 
with  its  very  existence  and  civilization.  As  I  have  demon- 
strated, a  country,  which  on  account  of  its  physical  condi- 
tions can  only  afford  work  for  the  majority  of  its  inhabitants 
for  one-third  of  the  year,  must  be  a  poverty-stricken  coun- 
try. The  total  production  of  the  15,000,000  Mexicans,  on 
a  general  average  and  for  a  single  year,  is  $20  per  inhabit- 
ant; the  production  of  a  Cuban,  not  a  model  of  industry, 
almost  reaches  $100  a  year;  the  average  German,  the  type 


64        WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT   MEXICO 

of  the  first-class  workman,  produces  $400  a  year.  If  Luis 
Cabrera,  the  brains  of  the  Mexican  revolution,  as  his  friends 
have  called  him,  has  said:  "La  Revolution  es  la  Revo- 
lution" (A  revolution  is  a  revolution),  one  may  rightfully 
answer  "La  Ctencia  es  la  Ciencia"  (Science  is  Science). 
This  will  not  be  scoffed  at  by  the  revolution,  and  will 
deal  the  Mexican  nation  its  death  blow,  unless  saved  by 
the  apparition  of  almost  supernatural  Mexicans. 

It  is  unreasonable  to  attribute  the  misery  of  the  indige- 
nous race  to  a  determinate  social  class,  which  in  no  sense 
ever  constituted  a  government;  to  a  group  of  educated  men, 
such  as  the  so-called  Cientificos;  to  a  handful  of  plutocrats, 
more  or  less  piratical  financiers;  to  a  dictator  of  genuine 
merit,  such  as  General  Porfirio  Diaz,  or  to  a  detestable 
dictator,  such  as  General  Victoriano  Huerta.  Mexico's 
greatest  drawback  is  to  be  found  in  the  unfortunate  physical 
conditions  which  have  created  the  vices,  the  weakness  and 
the  dejection  of  its  people.  It  is  regrettable  that  it  should 
have  occurred  to  a  man  of  President  Wilson's  qualifications 
to  attempt  lightly  to  solve  the  problem  of  life  or  death  for 
a  nation  with  no  more  reliable  data  than  stupid  newspaper 
stores,  the  theories  of  wise  coxcombs,  the  diatribes  of  dema- 
gogues, the  hypocritical  declamations  and  wild  howls  of  the 
bandits  and  of  the  incompetent  or  mercenary  American 
agents  or  consuls,  paid  to  deceive  the  Sage  of  the  White 
House  and  the  American  people. 

THE    CONSEQUENCES    OF    THE    INFERIORITY    OF    THE 
INDIGENOUS   RACE 

Notwithstanding  the  drawbacks  of  the  Mexican  climate, 
the  aboriginal  race  might  have  advanced,  might  even  have 
claimed  a  first  place  among  the  nations  of  the  world,  if  it 
had  not  been  an  inferior  race.  The  wonderful  Mexican 
lands  would  have  yielded  incalculable  commercial  wealth  if 


THE   AGRARIAN   QUESTION  65 

the  disadvantages  presented  by  the  climate — even  in  the  cen- 
tral plateau — owing  to  the  irregular  rainfall,  had  been  over- 
come by  irrigation.  Why  did  not  the  aborigines  dedicate 
themselves  after  the  Conquest  to  obtaining  water  for  their 
marvellous  lands?  Ignorant  and  severe  critics  of  the  Colon- 
ial Government  have  replied  with  emphasis:  Because  the 
Roman  Catholic  clergy  obliged  the  aborigines  to  devote  only 
the  strictly  necessary  time  to  agriculture;  that  is,  the  time 
necessary  to  provide  themselves  with  food,  making  them  de- 
vote the  rest  to  building  churches  and  convents.  This  view 
has  not  failed  to  color  the  opinions  of  even  intelligent  Mexi- 
cans and  those,  in  fact,  of  all  Latin-Americans.  It  is  at  the 
door  of  the  Catholic  Church,  then,  that  the  misery  of  the 
indigenous  race  is  to  be  laid.  For  men  of  science  this  opin- 
»  ion  is  ridiculous  and  worthless.  In  the  census  made  by  the 
Spanish  Government  in  1793;  in  the  third  volume  of  Dr. 
Mora's  excellent  work,  Mexico  y  sus  Revoludones ;  and  in 
the  statistical  note  of  the  celebrated  liberal  leader,  Don  Mig- 
uel Lerdo  de  Tejada,  the  total  cost  of  all  the  churches  and 
convents  is  estimated  at  300,000,000  pesos  silver,  at  a  time 
when  this  equaled  more  than  300,000,000  pesos  gold.  In 
the  three  centuries  covered  by  the  Colonial  regime  there 
were  90,000  working  days,  and  it  would  have  sufficed  for 
22,2OO  Indians,  working  at  a  minimum  wage  of  fifteen  cents 
per  day,  to  have  built  during  that  period  all  the  churches 
and  convents  that  were  to  be  found  in  New  Spain  at  the 
time  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  The  Colonial 
population  of  2,000,000,  existing  after  the  Conquest,  and 
the  3,500,000  indigenous  population,  existing  in  1803,  are 
included  in  the  Colonial  population  of  5,000,000  designated 
by  Baron  Humboldt.  Therefore,  during  the  three  hundred 
years  of  the  Colonial  regime,  there  was  an  average  of 
550,000  adult  Indians  who  were  able  to  work.  Deducting 
the  number  needed  by  the  clergy  for  the  construction  of 
churches  and  convents,  and  even  duplicating  this  number, 


66        WHOLE   TRUTH    ABOUT    MEXICO 

there  remained  500,000  men  who  could  have  devoted  then 
selves  to  agriculture  during  the  three  hundred  days  of  tt 
farming  year:  to  corn-raising  for  one  hundred  and  twent 
days,  and  to  the  construction  of  irrigation  plants  during  tt 
remaining  one  hundred  and  eighty  days. 

The  labor  of  500,000  Indians  for  180  days  each  year  fc 
300  years,  at  twenty-five  cents  gold  per  day,  represents 
working  capital  of  6,700,000,000  pesos  gold.  According  1 
the  calculations  of  the  Department  of  Fomento,  publishe 
in  1909,  1,600,000,000  pesos  silver,  or  800,000,000  pest 
gold,  devoted  to  the  development  of  irrigation  works,  woul 
suffice  to  insure  a  production  sufficient  to  abundantly  feed 
population  of  25,000,000.  It  would  have  sufficed,  then, 
72,500  Indians  had  devoted  180  days  a  year  for  300  years  1 
irrigation  work  to  have  amply  assured  a  prosperous  existent 
to  25,000,000  Mexicans. 

The  fifth  part  of  the  500,000  Indian  workmen — whic 
was  the  average  during  the  Colonial  period — would  ha^ 
sufficed  to  construct  irrigation  works  which  would  ha^ 
been  adequate  to  meet  the  needs  of  a  population  of  25,000 
ooo,  and  to  build  churches  and  convents  at  the  rate  of  sixl 
per  cent  more  than  those  they  built.  By  sending  io,oc 
of  their  companions  to  work  in  the  mines,  shifting  the 
gangs  each  week  and  assuming  the  responsibility  of  the 
support,  their  earnings  of  seventy-five  cents  gold  per  d'< 
(the  sum  paid  at  that  time  to  a  pickman)  could  have  bee 
accumulated,  thus  enabling  the  Indians  to  eventually  colle 
enough  money  to  obtain  everything  necessary  to  undertal 
and  successfully  carry  out  some  system  of  irrigation.  I  s; 
everything  necessary  advisedly,  because  they  could  have  er 
ployed  the  best  Spanish  engineers,  who  would  have  charge 
them  far  less  than  that  horde  of  lawyers — for  the  most  pa 
scoundrels — who  looked  after  the  interests  of  the  Indians  ar 
who  were  the  initiators  of  absurd  litigations,  artfully  pr 
longed  in  order  to  despoil  their  unfortunate  clients. 


THE   AGRARIAN    QUESTION  67 

The  Indians  were  well  aware  that  irrigation  was  the  only 
possible  means  to  overcome  the  natural  deficiency  of  the 
water  supply,  as  they  had  helped  in  the  construction  of  many 
of  the  irrigation  works,  some  of  them  very  important,  such 
as  the  famous  dam  of  the  Arroyo  Zarco,  built  by  the  Jesuits 
on  one  of  their  plantations.  It  will  be  seen,  then,  that  the 
failure  of  the  aboriginal  race  to  progress  in  agriculture,  at 
the  same  rate  that  the  Chinese,  the  Dutch  and  the  Swiss 
have  progressed,  is  due  to  the  fact  that  it  is  an  inferior  race. 

The  Church,  and  also  the  Spanish  and  Creole  landown- 
ers, built  great  irrigation  plants  on  their  properties.  All 
wheat,  with  the  exception  of  a  very  insignificant  amount,  that 
has  been  cultivated  in  Mexico  from  the  Colonial  period  to 
the  present  time,  has  been  raised  by  means  of  irrigation. 
And  the  wheat  crop  equals  the  fourth  part  of  the  corn  crop. 

The  landowners  and  the  friars,  notwithstanding  their 
backwardness,  their  love  of  routine,  their  unscientific  meth- 
ods, their  lack  of  interest  in  agriculture  and  their  indiffer- 
ence to  the  public  good,  managed  to  irrigate  a  great  portion 
of  the  arable  lands.  They  did  not  include  the  corn-raising 
lands  because  the  majority  of  the  population,  possessors  of 
equally  valuable  lands,  were  engaged  in  corn-raising  and,  be- 
ing as  free  to  sell  their  products  as  the  Spaniard  and  the 
Creole,  and  able  to  live  more  abstemiously  than  the  latter, 
it  was  not  a  paying  investment  for  them  to  sink  great  sums 
of  money  in  irrigation  plants,  when  their  competitors  were 
willing  to  dispose  of  their  crops  at  a  much  lower  figure  than 
they  were  able  to  quote. 

It  may  be  urged  that  the  Indians  were  not  properly  di- 
rected. That  is  no  doubt  true.  But  upon  whom  was  it  in- 
cumbent to  direct  them?  The  Government?  This  was  not 
the  epoch  in  which  the  Spanish  Government,  much  less  the 
Colonial,  busied  itself  about  agricultural  studies,  about  try- 
ing to  instruct  a  population  which  could  not  read  by  means 
of  pamphlets,  books  or  newspapers.  But  the  Colonial  Gov- 


68       WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT   MEXICO 

ernment  did  do  for  the  aborigines  what  it  was  bound  to  do 
in  conformity  with  the  political  and  administrative  tenets  of 
the  time,  and  that  was  to  leave  the  Indians  perfectly  free  to 
administer  their  affairs  through  their  village  authorities.  The 
English  colonists  in  North  America  did  not  receive  scien- 
tific instruction,  direction  or  subsidies  from  the  local  or  cen- 
tral government;  they  progressed  under  their  own  efforts 
and  initiative  simply  because  they  belonged  to  a  superior 
race.  The  Mexican  Indians  were  not  able  to  do  this  be- 
cause they  belong,  according  to  the  decrees  of  natural  history, 
ethnology,  general  history  and  sociology,  to  an  inferior  race, 
slow  to  develop  and  progress  along  the  lines  of  civilization. 
In  fine,  the  Mexican  indigenous  race  owes  its  abject  condi- 
tion to  itself,  and,  consequently,  its  future  is  dark,  inasmuch 
as  it  has  blindly  plunged  into  the  abyss,  tricked  by  false  and 
unenlightened  leaders. 

THE  VAMPIRES  THAT   PREYED  ON  THE  ABORIGINAL  RACE 

It  may  be  well  now  to  examine  how  much  of  truth  there 
is  in  the  oft-repeated  assertion  of  the  rapacious  exploitation  of 
this  interesting  aboriginal  race  by  the  Spanish  conquerors 
and  their  Creole  descendents.  According  to  the  critics,  his- 
torians, philanthropists,  liberators  and  reformers,  political 
poets  and  poets  of  politics,  those  responsible  for  the  civil  ex- 
ploitation of  the  aborigines  have  been  the  following:  The 
Spanish  plutocracy,  which,  during  the  Colonial  period,  en- 
joyed a  monopoly  in  Mexico  of  the  sale  of  merchandise  of 
Spanish  manufacture,  and  of  foreign  manufacture  adapted 
to  Spanish  tastes;  the  clergy,  regular  and  secular,  in  its 
most  corrupt  period,  when  the  great  revolution  of  the 
Protestant  Reformation  was  hurled  against  it;  the  landhold- 
ers and  the  Creole  military  leaders,  generally  dictators.  The 
burden  of  the  song  of  the  revolutionists  has  been  that  all  the 
misfortunes  of  the  Indians,  capable  of  wringing  tears  from 


THE  AGRARIAN   QUESTION  69 

the  eyes  of  a  crocodile,  can  be  laid  at  the  door  of  their  tra- 
ditional enemies:  the  plutocratic  retail  merchants  of  the 
Colonial  period;  the  clergy;  the  landholder  and  the  army. 

In  point  of  fact,  almost  none  of  the  great  Mexican  for- 
tunes was  amassed  by  agriculture,  even  though  their  pos- 
sessors were  landholders,  and  few  owe  their  origin  to  min- 
ing. Almost  all  came  from  the  retail  trade  of  the  pluto- 
cratic merchants  who  had  the  monopoly  of  the  outside  com- 
merce of  New  Spain,  selling  their  wares  at  an  advance  of 
five  hundred  per  cent  on  the  original  cost.  It  cannot  be  de- 
nied that  this  class  was  well  versed  in  the  art  of  draining  the 
pockets  of  the  colonists  and  transferring  their  gold  to  their 
own  coffers.  But  the  truth  is  that  all  the  inhabitants  of 
New  Spain,  except  the  natives  themselves,  were  more  or  less 
the  victims  of  the  cupidity  of  the  plutocratic  retail  merchants. 

There  was  only  one  way  of  being  exploited  by  those  who 
enjoyed  the  monopoly  of  outside  commerce,  and  that  was  by 
using  articles  of  Spanish  or  foreign  manufacture.  The  In- 
dian's chief  articles  of  consumption  were  corn,  beans,  pep- 
pers, salt  and  water,  and  as  a  beverage  a  species  of  rum 
(aguardiente)  and  pulque,  the  well-known  drink  extracted 
from  the  maguey.  None  of  these  articles  was  of  either  Span- 
ish or  foreign  manufacture,  nor  were  heavy  duties  imposed 
to  protect  foreign  manufacturers.  The  Indian  clothed  him- 
self in  an  unbleached  cotton  fabric  (mania),  and  as  Mex- 
ico from  the  time  of  the  Aztecs  produced  cotton  as  an  in- 
digenous product  at  a  very  low  price — lower  than  in  any 
other  part  of  the  wrorld — this  was  a  domestic  product.  The 
Indians  were  always  very  skillful  in  weaving  cotton  stuffs 
at  home,  and  Spain  never  forbade  or  restricted  this  labor. 
They  wore  palm  hats  made  by  the  Indians;  leather  sandals 
(huaraches)  made  by  the  Indians  from  native  hides;  used 
stone  grinding  blocks  (metates)  chiseled  by  the  Indians  from 
native  stone;  earthen  griddles  (comales),  made  by  the  In- 
dians of  the  ordinary  native  clay;  slept  on  straw  mats 


70        WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT   MEXICO 

(petates)  woven  by  the  Indians  from  the  Mexican  tule  plant. 
Their  houses  or  huts  were  built  of  sun-baked  bricks  (adobes) , 
the  doors  and  roofs  were  of  Mexican  wood,  hewn,  sawed  and 
fashioned  by  the  constructor  himself,  in  which  no  window 
glass,  latches,  hinges,  or  any  other  articles  of  foreign  manu- 
facture whatsoever  were  to  be  found.  And  it  is  well  to  add 
that  there  were  no  Colonial  taxes,  direct  or  indirect,  upon 
any  of  the  articles  that  have  been  mentioned  or  for  their 
manufacture.  This  supposed  exploitation  of  the  Indian  by 
the  Spanish  plutocratic  retail  merchant  class,  which  in  reality 
was  bent  upon  getting  the  most  out  of  the  work  and  capital 
of  the  colonists,  is  humbug. 

The  accusers  of  the  Spanish  and  Creoles  charge  the  clergy 
with  having  exploited  the  Indians  in  the  following  manner: 

First,  by  charging  them  tithes,  the  first-fruits  of  their 
farms  and  herds,  and  parochial  perquisites  consisting  of  fees 
for  baptisms,  confirmations,  marriages  and  funerals. 

Second,  by  enkindling  the  natural  fanaticism  of  the  Indians 
to  induce  them  to  expend  their  savings  and  even  go  in  debt 
in  order  to  make  offerings  to  the  Church  of  various  articles, 
especially  wax  candles,  on  the  patronal  feast  of  the  village  or 
the  plantation,  in  Holy  Week,  at  Christmas  and  on  the 
feasts  of  All  Saints  and  All  Souls. 

I  am  not  going  to  discuss  the  conduct  of  the  Church  from 
a  theological,  moral,  canonical,  humanitarian,  or,  in  gen- 
eral, sociological  aspect ;  but  I  shall  say  that  if  there  was  any- 
thing reprehensible  in  the  conduct  of  the  Church,  it  was  not 
especially  directed  against  the  Indians,  nor  were  such  wrongs 
especially  invented  to  exploit  them.  The  Catholic  Church 
was  an  institution,  as  it  continues  to  be,  of  an  universal  char- 
acter, and  just  as  she  treated  the  Indians  has  she  treated  the 
black,  yellow  and  white  races  which  have  been  subject  to 
her.  It  is  not  possible  to  make  a  specific  charge  against  the 
Church  with  regard  to  the  Indians,  nor  to  say  that  they  suf- 
fered more  at  her  hands  than  the  Catholics  of  other  races  or 


THE   AGRARIAN   QUESTION  71 

other  nations.  If  the  Indian  allowed  himself  to  be  exploited 
by  the  Church  he  did  only  what  all  other  rural  peoples,  what 
all  men,  if  we  come  to  that,  did  in  the  Ages  of  Faith.  The 
Indian  was  a  man  and,  as  such,  subject  to  the  powerful  re- 
ligious sentiment,  carried  to  the  point  of  fanaticism,  which 
characterized  all  peoples  in  that  period  when  the  form  of 
government  was  markedly  theocratic.  This  question  is  not 
of  individual  application  but  essentially  general,  comprising 
all  races,  religions  and  clergies.  The  Aztec  sacerdotal  body 
exacted  of  the  Indians  heavier  contributions  and  more  ardu- 
ous labors,  under  pain  of  harsher  punishment,  than  the  Catho- 
lic clergy  ever  did. 

If  the  Indian  himself  did  not  consider  that  a  wrong  was 
done  him  by  the  Church,  it  seems  hardly  necessary  to  take 
up  this  point.  If  we  grant  that  the  Indian  had  the  capacity 
to  become  a  Catholic,  and  as  a  Catholic  had  liberty  of  con- 
science within  the  Church,  no  one  has  a  right  to  censure 
him  if  he  sacrificed  all  he  had  for  the  Church  he  loved,  just 
as  we  approve,  applaud  and  extol  a  man  who  gives  every- 
thing, even  life  itself,  for  the  glory  and  defense  of  his  coun- 
try. To  the  believer,  country  cannot  come  before  God,  and 
it  is  unethical,  idiotic  and  incongruous  to  assert  that  the  man 
who  sacrifices  everything  to  his  God  is  to  be  censured  and  the 
one  who  sacrifices  everything  to  his  country  is  to  deserve  the 
undying  homage  of  posterity.  No  one  has  ever  held  that  a 
legitimate  government  does  wrong  in  exhorting  its  subjects 
to  sacrifice  everything  for  their  country,  preferring  its  ex- 
altation to  their  own  private  interests.  The  Church,  viewed 
from  the  religious  standpoint,  is  the  fatherland  of  the  soul, 
and  has,  in  the  eyes  of  the  faithful,  the  infallible  and  eternal 
sovereign  right  of  exacting  all  manner  of  sacrifices,  even  the 
sacrifices  of  all  one's  earthly  possessions. 

The  Colonial  Government  did  not  exploit,  nor  did  it  per- 
mit the  bureaucracies  to  exploit,  the  Indian  villages.  For 
them  the  exchequer  had  neither  claws  nor  hooks,  nor  confis- 


72        WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT   MEXICO 

cations  by  means  of  direct  or  indirect  taxes.  In  fact,  the 
Colonial  exchequer  was  benign  in  its  treatment  of  the  In- 
dian, so  benign,  indeed,  that  even  after  one  hundred  years 
of  independence  the  Indians  of  the  state  of  Oaxaca,  the  most 
numerous,  compact  and  unmixed  race  that  exists  in  the  coun- 
try, still  pay  the  Colonial  tribute  with  pleasure  and  scrupu- 
lous punctuality. 

The  critics  of  the  Colonial  regime  point  to  the  landhold- 
ers, or  rather  to  the  great  planters  in  general,  as  the  in- 
satiable exploiters  of  the  natives.  Without  entering  exten- 
sively into  the  question,  I  shall,  however,  say  that  the  Indians 
subject  to  the  plantation  owners — while  Mexico  was  still 
New  Spain — constituted  a  small  minority  as  compared  to 
the  independent  Indians  who  resided  in  their  villages.  Con- 
sequently, it  cannot  be  said  that  the  plantation  owners  tyran- 
nized over  the  native  race,  because  the  majority  of  that  race 
was  outside  their  jurisdiction.  The  most  that  can  be  said  of 
the  planters  is  that  during  the  Colonial  period  and  during 
that  of  independence,  down  to  1857,  they  tyrannized  over  a 
minority  of  the  natives. 

THE   REAL    EXPLOITERS   OF   THE   INDIANS 

The  implacable  despoilers  of  the  Indians  were  the  "gov- 
ernors" of  the  Indian  villages,  and  in  this  respect  condi- 
tions have  not  changed  up  to  the  present  time.  The  Colonial 
Government,  however,  was  always  on  the  alert,  as  we  shall 
presently  see.  When  there  had  been  a  series  of  good  crops, 
the  Indian,  in  order  to  establish  an  individual  business,  de- 
voted himself  to  raising  fowls  and  hogs,  sheep  and  asses; 
bought  one  or  two  cows  and  even  some  goats ;  sold  eggs,  but- 
ter, cheese,  lard,  dried  salt  meat,  sausage,  cracknel  and  other 
products.  The  Colonial  Government,  seeing  that  he  was 
being  literally  robbed  by  the  Creoles,  mestizos  and  even  by 
cunning  Indians,  ordered  that  the  governor  of  the  village 


THE   AGRARIAN   QUESTION  73 

should  supervise  all  commercial  transactions  and  approve 
only  those  which  in  his  estimation  were  honest  and  legiti- 
mate. This,  however,  only  added  to  the  evil.  The  gov- 
ernors leagued  with  the  unscrupulous  trader,  and  became 
in  the  end  the  most  pitiless  of  the  Indian's  despoilers.  It 
should  be  mentioned  that  the  governor  had  to  be  chosen 
from  among  the  Indians  of  the  village  he  governed;  there- 
fore, it  follows  that  the  Indians  were  wantonly  robbed  by 
their  own.  In  other  words,  the  Indian  was  the  despoiler 
of  the  Indian. 

Aware  that  this  infamous  state  of  affairs  existed,  the 
Colonial  Government  resolved  to  put  a  check  upon  the  na- 
tive governors  by  appointing  Creole  or  mestizo  lawyers, 
called  "protectors  of  the  Indians,"  whose  duty  was  to  watch 
and  restrain  the  Indian  governor.  But  history  repeats  itself. 
The  vigilant  lawyer  and  the  astute  governor  combined  forces, 
and  the  unfortunate  Indian  was  literally  stripped.  It  is  evi- 
dent, then,  that  the  Indian  himself,  in  league  with  the  Creole 
and  the  mestizo,  was  the  greatest  exploiter  of  the  majority 
of  the  Indians  and,  consequently,  the  most  expert  despoiler 
of  the  indigenous  race.  In  the  year  1871,  when  the  railroad 
from  the  City  of  Mexico  to  the  port  of  Vera  Cruz  was  being 
built,  the  English  engineers  and  contractors  were  surprised 
to  find  that  they  could  not  hire  native  labor  in  the  state  of 
Oaxaca  and  in  parts  of  that  of  Vera  Cruz,  without  going  first 
to  the  cacique  (chief)  of  the  village,  legally  known  as 
Municipal  President.  This  vampire  contracted  for  one  hun- 
dred, two  hundred  or  more  workmen  at  the  rate  of  seventy- 
five  cents  gold  a  day.  At  the  end  of  the  week  he  received 
the  pay  for  the  men  and  gave  them  only  one-half,  so  the 
Indian  in  reality  received  only  thirty-seven  and  one-half 
cents  per  day.  This  conduct,  worthy  of  a  Turk  or  a  Kaffir, 
was  known  to  the  Indians,  because  the  construction  com- 
pany took  pains  to  enlighten  them,  even  spreading  broad- 
cast printed  circulars  stating  that  the  company  was  paying, 


74       WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT   MEXICO 

and  would  pay,  to  all  workmen  employed  by  them  seventy- 
five  cents  gold  per  day.  But,  notwithstanding  the  fact  that 
they  knew  the  contents  of  this  circular,  and  that  they  had 
the  support  of  this  powerful  company,  as  well  as  that  of 
the  local  and  Federal  press,  and  the  protection  of  an  Indian 
President,  Benito  Juarez,  the  Indians  did  not  disavow  the 
authority  of  their  caciques,  but  supinely  allowed  themselves 
to  be  mercilessly  robbed.  A  race  that  submits  to  such  out- 
rages, and  looks  upon  them  as  acts  of  an  authority  that  is  to 
be  revered  and  respected,  is  a  race  that  promises  to  be  as  slow 
to  yield  to  the  advances  of  civilization  as  rocks  are  to  the 
action  of  the  ocean. 


EVERY    ONE    AGAINST    THE    INDIAN 

The  planters  have  been  accused  of  treating  their  Indian 
servants  with  haughtiness  and  disdain.  It  is  true,  but  what 
the  accusers  conceal  is  that  the  bureaucrats,  political  and 
non-political,  have  ever  accorded  the  same  treatment  to  the 
Indian.  It  is  only  the  demagogues  who  love,  venerate,  exalt 
and  protect  them  in  their  harangues,  when  they  think  it  will 
help  to  secure  their  votes  or  obtain  universal  applause, 
bringing  them  favorably  before  the  public  and  making 
them  feared  by  the  Government.  Even  the  most  ragged, 
unwashed,  vicious  loafer  of  the  cities  assumes  an  air  of  su- 
periority and  the  tone  of  a  potentate  toward  the  unfortu- 
nate Indian.  The  best  proof  that  all  Mexico  looks  upon  the 
Indian  as  an  inferior,  is  that  every  one  addresses  him  in  the 
familiar  form  of  "tu"  (which  expresses  confidence  and  affec- 
tion when  addressed  to  an  equal,  but  condescension  when 
directed  toward  an  inferior),  and  that  every  one  orders  him 
about  as  though  he  were  a  slave.  This  attitude  of  imaginary 
superiority  is  not  found  exclusively  among  the  Mexican  Cre- 
oles and  mestizos,  but  in  every  part  of  Latin-America  where 
there  are  domesticated  Indians.  We  do  not  have  to  go 


THE   AGRARIAN   QUESTION  75 

further  back  than  forty  years  to  find  the  time  when  a  popu- 
lation was  divided  into  "gentes  de  razon"  (rational  beings) 
and  Indians;  and  at  the  present  time  the  population  of  mes- 
tizos is  designated  "gentes  de  razon,"  in  counter  distinction 
to  the  Indians. 

The  Indians  know  full  well  that  all — Creoles,  mestizos, 
rich  and  poor,  honorable  and  dishonorable — have  trampled 
on  them  in  the  past,  are  trampling  on  them  at  present, 
and  propose  to  do  so  in  the  future.  That  is  why  the  leaders 
of  the  movement  to  restore  the  Indian  to  his  proper  sphere, 
all  of  them  full-blooded  Indians,  have  proclaimed  a  caste 
war  to  the  point  of  extermination  against  mestizos  and 
whites,  as  did  the  negroes  of  Santo  Domingo.  The  terrible 
bandit  chief  of  the  Sierra  de  Alica,  a  full-blooded  Indian 
and  the  idol  of  the  Indians  of  the  Nayarit,  in  his  declara- 
tion of  December,  1873,  when  he  took  command  of  his  army 
of  18,000  men,  reminded  them  that  in  order  that  their  race, 
the  indigenous  race,  should  recover  all  its  dignity,  all  its 
honor,  all  its  lands,  all  its  wealth  and  fulfill  the  Indian 
ideal,  it  was  indispensable  that  in  the  confines  of  all  the  vast 
Mexican  territory  there  remain  not  a  single  living  man  other 
than  the  Indian.  These  same  ideas  have  been  revived  in 
1914  and  1915  by  the  Zapata  press,  and  in  the  Convention  of 
Aguascalienr.es  and  in  that  of  the  City  of  Mexico,  by  the 
full-blooded  Indian  leaders,  who  have  told  their  comrades 
that  those  who  propose  to  guide  Indians  should  not  have  a 
drop  of  foreign  blood  in  their  veins.  All  that  herd — in 
which,  of  course,  there  are  some  notable  exceptions — of 
Creole  and  mestizo  agitators,  self-appointed  saviours  of  the 
race,  would  be  annihilated  by  the  Indians  if  they  obtained 
the  ascendency,  and  they  would  richly  deserve  it,  as  it  is  to 
this  venal  class  that  the  Indian  owes  most  of  his  great  mis- 
fortunes. • 


76        WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT   MEXICO 

THE  REVOLUTIONARY  LEGEND  OF  THE  LANDHOLDERS 

Various  elements  have  contributed  to  the  growth  in  the 
Mexican  public  mind  of  the  fable  of  a  luxurious  landholding 
class,  gross  oppressors  of  the  rural  people,  or,  more  correctly, 
of  what  has  lately  become  the  fad — the  indigenous  race. 
Among  these  may  be  counted,  the  voraciousness  of  the 
bureaucracy,  the  ignorance  of  the  newcomers,  the  chagrin  of 
the  defeated,  the  visions  of  patriots  and  the  illusions  of 
students. 

Landholders  of  this  type  existed  in  the  early  Colonial 
period — landholders  such  as  the  Conde  del  Valle  de  Oriza- 
ba, who  owned  seventy-seven  plantations  in  the  central  pla- 
teau, and  the  Marques  de  San  Miguel  de  Aguayo,  who 
owned  1,000,000  hectares  in  the  section  which  is  now  com- 
prised by  the  states  of  Durango  and  Coahuila.  But  the 
concentration  of  arable  lands  into  great  plantations  has  al- 
most entirely  disappeared.  The  present  planter's  land  is 
made  up  of  from  second-  to  fourth-rate  grazing  ground, 
bare  mountains  and  stretches  of  arid  desert.  One  of  the 
Mexican  planters  of  this  latter  type  is  the  famous  Don  Luis 
Terrazas.  He  undoubtedly  possessed  6,000,000  hectares  of 
land  in  the  state  of  Chihuahua,  but  only  4,000  hectares  of 
this  was  arable  land. 

A  Mexican  planter,  as  a  rule,  possesses  a  minimum  of 
arable  land,  a  considerable  tract  of  summer  stubble  grazing 
ground,  some  woodlands,  a  goodly  collection  of  barren 
mountains  and  a  great  stretch  of  unimproved  land,  utterly 
worthless  because  of  its  inferior  quality.  This  statement 
can  be  proved  by  absolutely  indisputable  facts.  Not  even  ten 
per  cent  of  the  mountains  are  timbered,  and  the  balance  are 
either  huge,  naked  rocks  or  are  covered  with  a  lifeless  kind 
of  growth  that  depresses  rather  than  raises  the  spirits  of 
the  enterprising  worker. 

Those  70,000,000  hectares  of  worthless  lands,  comprising 


THE   AGRARIAN   QUESTION  77 

a  territory  greater  than  the  whole  of  France,  have  owners, 
and  there  are  consequently  in  Mexico  landholders  whose 
assets  equal  naught.  Proprietors  of  this  description  cannot 
be  said  to  be  a  hindrance  to  the  indigenous,  or  any  other 
race,  their  only  office  being  apparently  to  serve  as  targets 
for  the  shots  of  the  agitators  who  constantly  point  them  out 
as  the  rapacious  plunderers  of  the  marvellous  lands  belong- 
ing to  the  Mexican  people. 

Don  Jose  Lorenzo  Cossio,  a  sincere  and  self-denying 
friend  of  the  indigenous  race,  and  a  professed  partisan  of  the 
division  of  land,  in  his  treatise  on  rural  lands  in  Mexico, 
published  in  1911,  says:  "It  is  true  that  the  people  lack  land, 
but  it  is  false  to  say  that  it  is  due  to  the  great  concessions 
of  the  Colonial  period. 

"To  demonstrate  this  I  give,  in  appendix  No.  I,  a  list  of 
some  of  the  ancient  landowners,  and  it  can  be  stated  that 
scarcely  one  of  their  descendents  has  at  the  present  time 
any  interest  in  them.  .  .  . 

"This  dismemberment  of  the  land  has  been  due  mainly  to 
partial  sales  and  testamentary  successions,  but  there  have 
been  other  causes  which  have  influenced  the  subdivision  on  a 
greater  scale."1 

After  enumerating  the  causes  that  influenced  the  subdi- 
vision of  the  lands  that  were  possessed  by  individuals, 
Senor  Cossio  declares  that  the  monopoly  of  property  was  re- 
established by  the  dictatorship  of  General  Diaz.  He  says: 
"But  more  especially  the  monopolistic  and  property- rights- 
destroying  policy  of  the  Government  has  made  pass  into  the 
hands  of  the  few  what  was  once  enjoyed  by  the  many."2 

According  to  the  data  presented  by  Senor  Cossio,  whose 
treatise  is  entirely  favorable  to  the  revolutionary  thesis,  the 
Mexican  Government  from  1857  to  I9°6  came  into  pos- 

1  Jose  Lorenzo  Cossio,  Como  y  por  quienes  se  ha  monopolizado 
la  propiedad  rustica  de  Mexico?  pp.  5,  6,  7. 

2  Jose  Lorenzo  Cossio,  Folleto,  p.  32. 


78        WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT   MEXICO 

session  of  72,335,907  hectares.  Of  this  13,764,607  hectares 
were  adjudicated  according  to  the  laws  promulgated  by  Pres- 
ident Benito  Juarez  and  former  administrations.  Senor 
Cossio  has  nothing  to  say  about  these  as  they  were  adjudi- 
cated to  more  than  ten  thousand  claimants.  He  reserves 
his  censure  for  the  alienation  by  the  Porfirio  Diaz  Govern- 
ment of  more  than  58,000,000  hectares  which  were  distrib- 
uted almost  gratuitously  among  twenty-eight  of  the  Presi- 
dent's friends.  With  regard  to  this  Senor  Cossio  has  writ- 
ten: "It  is  for  this  reason  that  this  law  has  been  the  one 
that  has  most  profoundly  affected  the  land  problem;  and  it 
may  be  said  that  in  great  part  it  served  to  prepare  the  pres- 
ent revolt,  because  it  has  once  more  monopolized  the  na- 
tional territory,  despoiling  the  many  to  enrich  the  few."1 

Senor  Cossio  submits  the  following  official  data  concern- 
ing the  survey  of  unclaimed  lands  made  during  the  dictator- 
ship of  General  Diaz. 

States  and  territories  which  were  surveyed  Hectares 

Chihuahua   14,612,366 

Baja   California 11,604,584 

Sonora    3,216,394 

Durango 789,009 

Coahuila,  Chihuahua,  Sonora,  Durango  and  Tamaulipas  5,214,306 

Chihuahua  and  Durango    1,043,099 

Chiapas    328,016 

Yucatan   251,878 

Tabasco  780,176 

Vera   Cruz    45>8s6 

Sinaloa   45>98i 

Puebla    73,^73 

Oaxaca  60,701 

San  Luis  Potosi  12,543 

Guanajuato  5,i66 

Islas  del  Golfo  de  Cortes   164,098 

Total   38,247,346 

1  Jose  Lorenzo  Cossio,  Folleto,  p.  34. 


THE   AGRARIAN   QUESTION  79 

Rhumt 

Unclaimed  lands  surveyed  in  the  northern  states  occu- 
pied by  extensive  mountain  chains,  immense  deserts 
and  from  second-  to  fourth-rate  summer  stubble 

grazing  ground,  and  scarcely  any  arable  land 36,689,837 

In  the  warm  zone   1,539,800 

In  the  temperate  and  cold  zones  I7>7°9 

Total    38,247,346 

The  remainder  of  the  lands  surveyed  up  to  the  58,000,- 
ooo  hectares  present  the  same  desolate  appearance.  The 
work  was  suspended  in  1891,  and  the  lands  surveyed  later 
were  surveyed  under  concessions,  with  the  results  given  in 
the  foregoing  table. 

Almost  all  the  surveying  has  been  done  in  the  arid  zone, 
comprising  immense  deserts,  salt  plains  and  gigantic  moun- 
tains, where  an  insignificant  minimum  of  workable  land 
exists.  Deducting  from  these  surveyed  lands  some  of  the 
good  territory  of  the  temperate  zone  of  the  state  of  Chiapas, 
and  those  of  the  Yaquis  in  the  state  of  Sonora,  which  occupy 
a  small  area  of  that  state,  there  are  not  to  be  found  in  the 
much-talked-of  58,000,000  hectares  of  land  snatched  from 
the  Mexican  people  by  the  covetousness  of  the  mighty,  even 
15,000  hectares  of  lands  suitable  for  the  cultivation 
of  cereal  and  leguminous  products.  From  the  year  1840 
all  the  arable  lands  in  the  northern  states  had  passed  into 
the  hands  of  the  inhabitants  of  these  states,  who  held  them 
by  legal  titles  or  by  that  of  prescription.  It  is  true  that 
General  Diaz  by  his  law  of  unclaimed  lands,  promulgated  in 
favor  of  his  friends,  constituted  great  landholdings  which 
were  afterwards  transferred  by  them  to  foreign  enterprises. 
But  these  were  composed  of  those  lands  which  did  not  pro- 
duce food  for  the  people  and  which  could  not  be  constituted 
into  small  holdings;  neither  could  they  be  distributed  among 
poor  ranchers,  because  the  summer  stubble  grazing  ground 
of  this  section,  smaller  by  far  than  the  absolutely  desert 


8o        WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT   MEXICO 

land,  is  under  the  ban  of  frequent  and  tremendous 
droughts  which  kill  the  cattle.  To  derive  any  profit  from 
these,  the  investment  of  great  capital  would  have  been  nec- 
essary in  order  to  install  hydraulic  plants  to  overcome  en- 
tirely, or  at  least  in  a  measure,  the  natural  deficiencies. 


THE  TRUTH  ABOUT  THE  LANDHOLDERS 

In  the  central  plateau,  where  almost  all  the  lands  adapted 
to  the  cultivation  and  cereal  and  leguminous  products  are 
to  be  found,  there  are  no  landholders  who  could,  to  any  great 
extent,  injure  the  interests  of  the  poor  class,  because  the 
plantation  that  exceeds  1,000  hectares  of  arable  land  is 
the  exception.  The  following  facts  will  amply  bear  this 
out. 

According  to  the  carefully  prepared  statistics  of  the  De- 
partment of  Fomento,  forty  per  cent  of  the  total  corn  pro- 
duction is  grown  in  Guanajuato,  Jalisco  and  Michoacan, 
the  joint  area  of  which  is  173,810  square  kilometers,  and 
deducting  from  these  the  mountains,  ravines,  the  precipitous 
plains,  the  great  lakes  of  Chapala,  Patzcuaro  and  Cuitzeo, 
there  remain  50,000  square  kilometers  for  agriculture  and 
cattle-raising.  These  three  states,  which  produce  forty  per 
cent  of  all  the  corn  available  for  the  maintenance  of  the 
Mexican  nation,  comprise  1,114  plantations  and  9,515 
ranches,  according  to  Vol.  IX,  p.  495,  of  the  General  Sta- 
tistics of  the  Mexican  Republic. 

The  area  of  land  suitable  for  cultivation  or  cattle  raising 
represents  sixty  per  cent  of  the  available  50,000  square  kilo- 
meters of  the  states  we  have  under  consideration;  conse- 
quently, each  of  the  1,114  plantations  has  an  average  area  of 
1 8  square  kilometers  or  1,800  hectares.  And  it  must  also  be 
borne  in  mind  that  the  summer  stubble  grazing  ground  pre- 
dominates over  the  arable  land,  bearing  out  what  I  have 


THE   AGRARIAN   QUESTION  81 

said  that  it  is  an  exception  in  the  most  fertile  states  of  the 
Republic,  which  enjoy  the  most  favorable  rainfall  conditions, 
to  find  plantations  of  more  than  1,000  hectares.  An  aver- 
age area  of  320  hectares  may  be  approximately  assigned  to 
the  9,515  ranches  located  in  these  states.  It  cannot  be  said, 
then,  that  the  situation  in  that  part  of  the  Republic  which 
produces  forty  per  cent  of  the  corn  consumed  by  the  Mex- 
ican people  is  such  as  to  inspire  rage  and  to  call  forth  an- 
athemas against  the  landholders.  What  has  been  said  of  the 
plantations  of  this  section  is  true  of  all  those  to  be  found 
south  of  the  22d  parallel  of  north  latitude. 


PRESIDENT    WILSON^   DOUBLE    SCALES    AND    MEASURES 

President  Wilson  has  thundered  against  the  Mexican 
landholders,  whose  position  has  inspired  his  avowed  parti- 
sanship for  the  revolutionists,  a  partisanship,  however,  which 
the  President  himself  has  not  yet  qualified  as  a  hindrance  or 
a  help:  "Whether  we  have  benefited  Mexico  by  the  course 
we  have  pursued  remains  to  be  seen"  (Address  to  Congress, 
December  7,  1915). 

President  Wilson  has  said  through  the  columns  of  The 
Saturday  Evening  Post:  "It  is  a  curious  thing  that  every 
demand  for  the  establishment  of  order  in  Mexico  takes  into 
consideration,  not  order  for  the  benefit  of  the  people  of  Mex- 
ico, the  great  mass  of  the  population,  but  order  for  the  bene- 
fit of  the  old-time  regime,  for  the  aristocrats,  for  the  vested 
interests,  for  the  men  who  are  responsible  for  this  very  con- 
dition of  disorder.  No  one  asks  for  order  because  order 
will  help  the  masses  of  the  people  to  get  a  portion  of  their 
rights  and  their  land;  but  all  demand  it  so  that  the  great 
owners  of  property,  the  overlords,  the  hidalgos,  the  men 
who  have  exploited  that  rich  country  for  their  own  selfish 
purposes,  shall  be  able  to  continue  their  processes  undis- 


82        WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT   MEXICO 

turbed  by  the  protests  of  the  people  from  whom  their  wealth 
and  power  have  been  obtained."1 

"They  want  order — the  old  order;  but  I  say  to  you  that 
the  old  order  is  dead.  It  is  my  part,  as  I  see  it,  to  aid  in 
composing  those  differences  so  far  as  I  may  be  able,  that  the 
new  order,  which  will  have  its  foundation  on  human  liberty 
and  human  rights  shall  prevail."2 

If  President  Wilson  is  the  implacable  adversary  of  the 
landholder,  why  has  he  not  proceeded  against  the  Cuban 
landholder,  since  his  voice  is  heard  in  Cuba  and  his  counsels 
are  respected?  Why  has  he  not  trained  the  masked  and  un- 
masked batteries  of  his  political  policy  upon  Cuba,  instigat- 
ing a  social  revolution  in  case  his  admonitions  are  not 
heeded,  shielding  it  with  his  powerful  protection  to  the  end  ? 
There  are  still  to  be  found  in  Cuba  many  families  that 
possess  good  sugar-cane  lands  to  the  extent  of  50,000,  100,- 
ooo  and  even  200,000  hectares.  There  is  no  prospect  that 
these  will  be  diminished  in  size  by  testamentary  deeds,  which 
would  subdivide  them  among  numerous  descendents,  because 
powerful  stock  companies  have  been  formed  for  the  purpose 
of  developing  the  sugar-cane  industry  upon  a  large  scale. 
The  Chaparra  Sugar  Company,  an  American  corporation, 
possesses  more  than  80,000  hectares  of  good  sugar  lands. 
The  press  of  Havana  in  December,  1915,  announced  the 
formation  of  an  Anglo-American  Company  with  a  capital  of 
$50,000,000,  which  would  hereafter  dedicate  itself  to  the 
sugar  industry  in  the  extensive  territory  it  had  acquired. 

On  Monday,  December  27,  1915,  El  Mundo,  an  Havana 
daily,  stated  that  a  Mexican  named  Rios  had  been  denounced 
to  the  Cuban  Department  of  the  Interior  as  an  inciter  of 
the  laboring  classes  against  the  capitalist,  and  further  stated 
that  Senor  Hevia,  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior,  had  resolved 
to  take  radical  measures  against  the  agitator.  The  follow- 

1  The  Saturday  Evening  Post,  Vol.  186,  No.  47,  May  23,  1914. 


THE   AGRARIAN    QUESTION  83 

ing  day  El  Heraldo,  another  Cuban  journal,  stated  that 
Rios  had  called  at  its  editorial  offices  saying  that  he  was  not 
an  agitator,  but  simply  a  Mexican  painter  who  had  come  to 
Cuba  hoping  to  earn  an  honest  living,  which  he  had  not  been 
able  to  do  in  his  own  country.  El  Heraldo,  although  sus- 
taining the  Cuban  Government's  policy  of  not  admitting 
agitators,  called  attention  to  the  advisability  of  resorting  to 
rigorous  measures  only  when  guilt  was  proved  or  reasonable 
presumption  of  guilt  existed.  Doubtless,  Mr.  William  Gon- 
zalez, the  United  States  Minister  to  Cuba,  would  have  con- 
gratulated President  Menocal  upon  his  intelligent  and  pa- 
triotic resolution  to  prosecute  all  agitators,  who,  it  would 
seem,  according  to  White  House  standards,  should  be  per- 
mitted to  carry  out  their  nefarious  trade  undisturbed  in 
Mexico  only. 

I  do  not  censure  the  Cuban  landholder,  or  the  monopoliz- 
ing American  or  Anglo-Saxon  enterprises,  and  much  less 
President  Menocal,  because  he  did  what  General  Porfirio 
Diaz  did  with  unerring  judgment  when  he  governed  Mexico 
sanely.  Even  when  the  agitator  is  a  son  of  the  soil  and 
absolute  freedom  of  the  press  exists,  it  is  the  duty  of  the 
press  to  uphold  the  inviolability  of  law  and  order.  There 
is  nothing  more  destructive  of  this  supreme  social  need  than 
the  sinister  gospel  of  war  unto  death,  in  the  name  of  ven- 
geance, between  the  rich  and  the  poor;  vengeance  for  cen- 
turies of  suffering — an  irrational  revenge,  because  no  one  can 
prove  that  all  the  misfortunes  that  have  come  upon  humanity 
have  emanated  from  the  aristocracy,  any  more  than  any  one 
can  reasonably  deny  that  without  this  aristocracy  humanity 
would  have  perished. 

Neither  do  I  censure  President  Wilson's  conduct  with 
regard  to  Cuba.  What  I  wish  to  do  is  simply  to  call  atten- 
tion to  a  fact  which  will  later  help  me  to  trace  and  define 
the  real  psychology  of  the  President  of  the  United  States. 


84        WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT   MEXICO 

ANOTHER  COLOSSAL   LIE 

The  Mexican  people,  foreigners,  and  especially  President 
Wilson,  have  been  given  to  understand  that  the  great  ma- 
jority of  the  indigenous  race  was  deprived  of  its  collective 
ownership  of  lands,  known  as  municipal  lands,  in  order  that 
they  might  be  distributed  among  the  inhabitants,  thereby 
constituting  them  independent  property  owners;  but  that 
when  this  had  been  accomplished  the  great  landholders,  al- 
ways greedy  for  the  best  lands,  and  determined  to  keep  the 
Indians  in  a  position  of  servility,  took  advantage  of  their 
simplicity  and,  by  paying  them  a  mere  pittance — a  grave  of- 
fence according  to  the  Civil  Code — literally  robbed  them 
of  their  share.  Nothing  can  be  further  from  the  truth,  and 
nothing  has  been  more  effective  in  arousing  the  sympathy 
and  tricking  the  imagination  of  the  ignorant. 

According  to  the  statistics  published  by  Dr.  Mora  in  1845, 
and  confirmed,  in  1856,  by  one  of  the  most  distinguished  re- 
form thinkers,  Don  Miguel  Lerdo  de  Tejada,  there  were 
at  that  time  in  Mexico  2,860  plantations  and  as  many 
ranches. 

The  following  data  are  to  be  found  in  Vol.  IX,  p.  495, 
of  the  General  Statistics  compiled  by  the  Mexican  Govern- 
ment: 

Mexican  Republic 

Cities    196 

Towns   469 

Villages    5>213 

Plantations   8,873 

Ranches  26,607 

Small  ranches   2,469 

Hamlets 902 

Settlements   924 

Small  farms    164 

Road  stations    250 

Wayside  provision  stations    41 


THE   AGRARIAN   QUESTION  85 

The  records  of  the  Federal  states  show  that  2,082  villages 
are  still  in  existence  which  preserve  their  ancient  title  to  the 
municipal  lands  which  surround  them,  this  violation  of  the 
law  being  covered  by  entering  them  as  "for  common  dis- 
tribution," although  they  have  not  been  touched  for  fifty- 
eight  years.  This  demonstrates  that,  counting  individual  and 
collective  property  owners,  there  were  42,311  property 
owners  in  Mexico  previous  to  the  revolution  of  1910.  It  is 
especially  to  be  noted  that  there  were  2,800  ranches  in  1856, 
and  26,607  in  1910. 

From  whence  was  the  land  represented  by  this  great  in- 
crease in  the  number  of  ranches  derived.  From  the  un- 
claimed lands?  In  the  statistics  only  3,726  ranches  are 
enumerated  in  the  states  where  unclaimed  lands  existed  pre- 
vious to  1856,  and  there  is  an  increase  of  23,000  to  be  ac- 
counted for.  Were  they  taken  from  the  big  plantations? 
Some  may  thus  have  come  into  being,  but  as  a  general  thing 
the  plantation  owners  when  they  needed  money  mortgaged 
their  properties,  and  in  order  to  meet  the  mortgages  pre- 
ferred to  lose  the  whole  than  to  subdivide  it.  On  the  other 
hand,  as  the  majority  of  the  plantation  owners  carried  heavy 
mortgages,  they  could  not  sell  a  portion  of  their  territory 
without  the  consent  of  their  creditors,  and  this  could  rarely 
be  obtained.  And  if  the  planters  ever  sold,  voluntarily  or 
by  order  of  their  creditors,  they  always  sold  at  a  high  figure. 

The  partisans  of  the  Indians  assert  that  the  Indian  prop- 
erty owners  sold  their  lands  at  a  ridiculously  low  figure ;  but 
is  it  possible  that,  if  lands  of  equal  value  were  put  upon 
the  market,  one  at  a  high  figure  by  the  planter  and  the  other 
at  a  low  figure  by  the  Indian,  any  one  could  be  found  who 
would  pay  an  excessive  amount  for  what  he  could  buy  at 
a  ridiculously  low  price? 

Something  still  remains  to  be  said  on  this  subject.  The 
planters  have  wrestled  for  centuries  with  the  pretensions  of 
the  Indians,  who  constantly  invaded  their  territories  from 


86        WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT   MEXICO 

their  neighboring  villages.  The  planter  trembled  before  the 
shyster  tribe  that  defended  the  Indians,  and  prolonged  their 
cases  interminably  by  all  manner  of  chicaneries.  The  plan- 
tation that  was  in  litigation  with  an  Indian  village  depre- 
ciated in  value  and  it  was  almost  impossible  to  mortgage  or 
sell  it  at  an  acceptable  figure. 

The  ranchman  is  a  mestizo  of  the  rough-rider  type,  gen- 
erally very  brave  and  adventurous,  revelling  in  danger,  fear- 
ing neither  Indians,  lawyers,  nor  artifices.  When  the  In- 
dians invade  his  premises,  he  receives  them  with  a  pistol, 
follows  them  with  a  dagger,  destroys,  at  the  head  of  a  guer- 
rilla band,  half  of  their  villages,  hangs  the  chief,  pursues  the 
Municipal  President  with  the  arm  of  the  law,  and  generally 
terrorizes  them.  It  is  the  ranchman  of  this  type  who  as  a 
general  thing  furnishes  the  material  for  those  terrible  guer- 
rilla fighters,  and  the  Indian  villages  stand  in  wholesome 
dread  of  the  ranchmen  of  the  neighborhood. 

Most  of  the  ranches  which  go  to  make  up  the  total  of 
the  increase  noted  have  come  from  land  purchased  at  a 
paltry  sum  from  the  Indians,  not  by  the  planters  but  by  the 
ranchmen. 

As  a  natural  consequence  of  the  laws  of  dismemberment 
of  all  property  held  in  common,  the  Mexican  Indian  villages 
have  decreased  in  size  and  importance,  ranging  as  small 
ranches,  hamlets  and  settlements  in  the  last  years  of  their 
existence. 

The  statistics  of  the  Department  of  Fomento  confirm 
these  facts.  As  the  villages  have  deteriorated  or  disappeared 
altogether,  the  big  and  little  ranches  have  increased.  We 
have  in  fact: 


THE   AGRARIAN   QUESTION  87 

States  and  Territories                       Villages  Ranches 

Nuevo  Leon    4  1,040 

Aguascalientes    6  305 

Colima    9  X78 

Lower  California,  Southern  District....  19  396 

Sonora    1*  664 

Sinaloa   228  1,708 

Chihuahua   181  1,785 

Coahuila    20  500 

Durango    106  780 

Tamaulipas     31  1,665 

San  Luis  Potosi    19  1,102 

Zacatecas   3°  1,241 

Jalisco    182  3,712 

Tepic    60  654 

Guanaj  uato   37  2,727 

Michoacan   228  3,076 

Queretaro    36  308 

Vera  Cruz 183  762 

Tabasco    54  5^8 

Campeche    36  148 

Chiapas    105  399 

Total   1,645  23,678 

The  following  table  gives  the  relative  proportion  between 
the  villages  and  ranches,  in  the  states  where  the  former  pre- 
dominate : 

States  and  Territories  Villages 

Oaxaca   937 

Mexico 725 

Puebla    609 

Hidalgo    438 

Guerrero    313 

Yucatan    154 

Tlaxcala    125 

Federal  District 172 

Morelos    107 

Total   3,580  3,047 


88        WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT   MEXICO 

The  foregoing  tables  demonstrate  that  the  decline  of  the 
Indian  villages  has  not  given  rise  to  the  increase  of  large 
landholdings,  as  the  agitators  would  have  us  believe,  but  that 
it  has  brought  about  the  development  of  the  ranches  which 
represent  the  average  smaller  landholdings. 

Considered  from  this  point  of  view,  the  startling  assertion 
that  the  landholders  appropriated  for  their  benefit  the  lands 
which  the  Indians  sold  at  a  paltry  sum  when  the  Reform 
Revolution  made  them  independent  property  owners,  cannot 
be  looked  upon  as  anything  but  a  lie. 


GROSS  MISREPRESENTATION  ABOUT  THE  STATE  OF  MORELOS 

Many  lies  concerning  a  despicable  landholding  class  in  the 
state  of  Morelos,  whose  oppressions  of  the  inhabitants  have 
justified  this  outburst  of  passion  and  vengeance,  have  been 
freely  circulated,  and  it  is  my  purpose,  for  the  benefit  of  all 
honest  and  intelligent  persons,  to  analyze  and  destroy  them. 

The  first  to  be  attacked  is  the  assertion  that  the  state  of 
Morelos  is  enormously  rich.  This  fabrication  is  by  no  means 
modern ;  it  is  the  perennial  fruit  of  the  tree  of  undying  Mexi- 
can vanity  planted  in  the  Colonial  period.  The  area  of  the 
state  of  Morelos  is  7,080  square  kilometers,  only  one-tenth 
of  which  is  suitable  for  cultivation.  Morelos  might  lay  claim 
to  being  enormously  rich  if  ninety  per  cent  of  its  territory 
was  arable  land  and  the  remaining  ten  per  cent  unproduc- 
tive. As  exactly  the  contrary  is  the  case,  truth  seems  to 
oblige  us  to  say  that  Morelos  is  one  of  the  poorest,  instead 
of  one  of  the  richest,  states  in  the  Republic.  To  be  exact  it 
should  be  said  that  in  the  state  of  Morelos  there  are  certain 
tracts,  not  very  extensive,  like  the  Canada  of  Cuernavaca 
and  the  Valle  de  Tetecala  and  that  of  Amilpas,  which  pos- 
sess rich  lands. 

President  Wilson,  his  confidential  envoy,  Mr.  Lind,  Mr. 
Bryan  and  other  distinguished  Americans,  were  deeply 


THE   AGRARIAN   QUESTION  89 

stirred  when  they  heard  that  the  state  of  Morelos  was  prac- 
tically owned  by  thirty-two  planters,  who  richly  deserved 
ruin  and  even  death  because  of  this  great  crime.  Dividing 
the  superficial  area  of  the  state  of  Morelos  by  thirty-two,  we 
find  that  every  planter  would  have  an  average  of  22,000 
hectares  of  land.  There  are  more  than  thirty-two  planters 
in  the  Island  of  Cuba  owning  22,000  hectares  of  land;  but 
what  is  a  virtue  in  Cuba,  is  a  crime  in  Mexico,  which  calls 
for  the  attention  of  the  President  of  the  United  States  and 
the  consecration  of  his  best  efforts  to  the  promotion  of  a 
social  revolution  that  is  destroying  the  country.  There  is 
this  notable  difference  between  being  a  planter  in  Cuba  and 
being  a  planter  in  the  state  of  Morelos.  I  have  read  that 
in  Cuba  with  118  square  kilometers  of  land  one  can  pro- 
duce, not  as  the  limit,  but  with  considerable  ease,  10,000,000 
tons  of  sugar  per  year,  which,  estimated  in  dollars,  equals 
$1,000,000,000.  The  state  of  Morelos  can  only  produce 
45,000  tons  of  sugar,  not  exceeding  in  value  $5,000,000, 
which,  divided  among  the  thirty-two  imaginary  planters 
who  have  caused  President  Wilson  so  many  sleepless  nights, 
would  amount  to  $156,000  for  each  as  the  gross  receipts  per 
year. 

However,  the  data  which  have  raised  Mr.  Wilson's  al- 
truism to  a  tension  of  one  hundred  thousand  volts  are  false. 
The  number  of  planters  engaged  in  the  cultivation  of  sugar- 
cane is  forty-five;  and  what  has  been  most  artfully  con- 
cealed from  the  honest  friends  of  the  native  race  is  that,  be- 
sides the  plantations,  there  are  ninety-one  ranches,  owned  in 
great  part  by  ranchmen;  that  is,  by  men  of  the  common 
class,  and  composed  of  the  lands  which  were  given  to  the 
Indians  at  the  time  that  the  law  of  dismemberment  of  lands 
held  in  common  went  into  effect,  and  which  were  sold  by 
them  at  paltry  sums.  It  is  true  that  some  of  the  Morelos 
planters  bought  lands  from  the  Indians  who  voluntarily 
sold  them,  but  it  is  also  true  that  the  majority  of  these 


90        WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT    MEXICO 

lands  passed  into  the  hands  of  the  ranchmen.  And  now,  as 
they  can  no  longer  buy  any  lands  from  the  Indians  because 
there  are  none  to  be  had,  the  ranchmen  have  initiated  the 
revolution  to  get  the  land  and  water  away  from  the  planters, 
keeping  the  marrow  and  giving  the  bone  to  the  Indian.  It 
should  be  noted  also,  that  in  the  rural  districts  of  Morelos 
the  Indians  are  controlled  by  the  ranchmen,  among  whom 
there  are  many  active  revolutionary  leaders,  and  the  re- 
mainder are  the  avowed  partisans  of  the  spoliation  of  the 
planters.  The  state  of  Morelos  has  only  70,000  hectares  of 
arable  land,  as  has  already  been  said,  and  of  these  only 
12,000  are  devoted  to  the  cultivation  of  sugar-cane  and  rice: 
8,000  hectares  to  the  former  and  4,000  to  the  latter.  All  the 
rest  is  devoted  to  corn  dry  farming,  which,  however,  is  not 
done  by  the  planter.  The  land  is  leased,  the  lessees  being, 
as  a  rule,  ordinary  common  people  or  ranchmen. 

The  terms  of  lease  are  such  as  to  make  it  available  to  all 
persons  who  understand  agriculture,  and  the  most  elemen- 
tary economic  principles.  The  lands  in  Morelos  are  semi- 
tropical,  and  the  arable  land  is  as  a  rule  good  and  not  as 
exhausted  as  the  cold  and  temperate  lands  of  the  central 
plateau.  For  the  lease  by  the  year  of  a  lot  comprising  5 
hectares  for  the  cultivation  of  corn  by  dry  farming,  which 
on  an  average  produces  16  hectoliters  per  hectare,  the 
farmer  pays,  instead  of  money,  five  loads,  or  ten  hectoliters, 
of  corn.  In  the  five  years  previous  to  the  revolution  the 
price  of  a  hectoliter  of  corn  in  Morelos,  still  in  the  hands 
of  the  harvester,  was  3.50  pesos  silver,  so  that  the  annual 
lease  of  5  hectares  was  35  pesos  silver,  or  7  pesos  silver  per 
hectare. 

In  the  region  of  the  central  plateau  one  hectare  of  good 
land  for  corn  dry  farming  is  estimated  at  300  pesos  silver; 
the  price  doubling  in  the  Bajio  and  near  the  City  of  Mex- 
ico. When  the  Chapingo  plantation,  which  is  situated  about 
forty  kilometers  from  the  City  of  Mexico,  was  dismem- 


THE   AGRARIAN    QUESTION  91 

bered  the  price  set  was  from  400  to  600  pesos  per  hectare. 
The  boundaries  of  the  small  state  of  Morelos  join  those  of 
the  Federal  District,  and  Cuernavaca,  its  capital,  is  sixty- 
four  kilometers  from  the  City  of  Mexico.  The  yield  of 
corn  in  the  state  of  Morelos  is  double  that  of  the  Federal 
District,  and  300  pesos  per  hectare  for  land  suitable  for  dry 
farming  in  the  state  of  Morelos  is  a  low  estimate.  The  price 
of  a  lot  of  5  hectares,  at  the  rate  of  300  pesos  per  hectare, 
is  1,500  pesos  silver,  and  the  cost  of  the  lease  being  35  pesos 
per  year,  it  follows  that  the  lessee  pays  two  and  one-third 
per  cent  for  land  rent,  a  moderate  amount  if  it  is  taken  into 
consideration  that  the  rate  of  interest  on  mortgages  is  six 
per  cent,  and  from  eight  to  ten  per  cent  on  bank  loans. 

The  stubble  grazing  lands  in  Morelos  were  leased  by 
the  planters  previous  to  the  revolution  for  ridiculously  small 
amounts. 

It  is  self-evident  from  the  foregoing  facts  that  the  labor- 
ing class  in  the  state  of  Morelos  is  exclusively  engaged  in 
sugar-cane  raising  on  the  plantations,  and  previous  to  the 
revolution  the  day-wage  was  the  highest  paid  in  the  whole 
of  the  Republic  for  agricultural  work. 

THE   HUNGER  PROBLEM   IN   ITS  TRUE   ASPECT 

Why  did  the  Indians  rid  themselves  of  the  lands  that 
were  gratuitously  divided  among  them  by  the  laws  of  dis- 
memberment of  1856  and  1857?  No  one  can  say  that  the 
Indians  were  forced  to  do  this  through  fear  of  the  planters, 
or  because  they  obliged  them  by  coersive  means  to  do  so, 
because  they  possessed  no  power,  the  popular  liberal  party, 
which  supported  the  Reform  Revolution  which  ended  in 
1867  with  the  execution  of  the  Archduke  Maximilian  of 
Austria  on  the  Cerro  de  las  Campanas,  having  declared  all 
the  planters  traitors  for  recognizing  the  Empire.  It  insulted 
them  continually,  deprived  them  of  all  power,  subjected 


92        WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT   MEXICO 

them  to  the  orders  of  liberal  governors,  drawn  from  the 
ranks  of  the  people,  who  went  out  of  their  way  to  heap 
humiliations  upon  them,  treating  them  like  pariahs.  It  was 
General  Porfirio  Diaz  who  established  in  Mexico  the  great 
conciliatory  policy  which  delivered  the  wealthy  class,  and 
more  especially  the  landholders,  from  the  regime  of  perse- 
cution which  they  had  suffered  under  the  great  majority  of 
the  "liberal  heroes,"  a  persecution  which  Benito  Juarez 
always  reprobated,  but  was  never  able  to  remedy.  It  was 
not  until  1885  that  General  Diaz  manifested  this  concilia- 
tory policy  in  any  marked  degree,  and  by  then  almost  all 
the  Indian  property  holders  had  sold  their  lands  for  a  pitt- 
ance, not  to  the  planter,  but  in  the  great  majority  of  cases 
to  the  ranchmen. 

It  has  been  claimed  that  this  sale  by  the  Indians  of  their 
lands  is  to  be  attributed  to  the  fact  that  they  are  vicious, 
lacking  in  administrative  ability  and  easily  influenced  by  the 
clergy,  who  by  means  of  tithes  and  contributions  stripped 
them  of  the  profits  of  their  crops. 

The  defender  of  the  Indian,  of  course,  fails  to  mention 
that  vampire  of  the  common  class  which  preys  upon  the  In- 
dian precisely  in  the  state  of  Morelos.  Here  the  planter 
demands  10  hectoliters  of  corn  a  year  as  the  price  of  lease 
for  5  hectares  of  land;  whereas  the  ranchmen,  owners  of 
small  herds  raised  on  lands  rented  to  them  by  the 
planter  at  an  exceedingly  low  figure,  charge  the  poor  In- 
dian farmer  12  loads  of  corn  for  the  use  of  a  yoke  of  oxen 
for  only  two  months  of  the  year.  As  the  price  of  one  load 
of  corn  is  7  pesos,  the  friend  of  the  Indian  fleeces  him  of 
84  pesos.  This  is  paying  rather  high  for  one  yoke  of  oxen 
for  two  months.  The  Indian  undoubtedly  is  vicious,  a  poor 
administrator,  but  not  to  the  point  of  parting  with  his  land 
— the  thing  he  most  cherishes — and  selling  it  for  a  paltry 
sum,  if  conditions  are  such  that  he  can  till  it  to  advantage. 
The  Indians  of  Xochimilco,  Iztacalco  and  other  points,  the 


THE   AGRARIAN   QUESTION  93 

owners  of  the  floating  islands  in  the  lakes  of  the  Federal 
District  known  as  the  chinampas,  although  they  are  vicious, 
poor  administrators  and  can  be  said  to  be  still  under  the  in- 
fluence of  the  clergy  because  they  have  never  ceased  to  be 
devoted  Catholics,  have  nevertheless  held  for  centuries  the 
monopoly  of  the  vegetable  trade  of  the  City  of  Mexico. 
Even  the  consignments  from  the  surrounding  states,  ren- 
dered necessary  by  the  growth  of  the  city,  have  not  been 
able  to  compete  with  them. 

In  the  Federal  District  itself  there  are  numerous  Indians 
who  are  owners  of  lands  which  were  once  the  beds  of  lakes. 
These  lands  possess  considerable  fertility  and  enjoy  the  most 
favorable  rain  conditions  to  be  found  anywhere  in  the  Re- 
public. These  Indians  have  not  disposed  of  their  lands 
and  would  repulse  with  horror  any  offer  to  buy  them  at 
any  price.  In  the  states  of  Jalisco,  Michoacan,  Guanajuato, 
Vera  Cruz  and  Tabasco,  independent  Indian  property  own- 
ers are  still  to  be  found.  They  are  devoted  to  the  cultiva- 
tion of  their  land,  although  without  doubt,  owing  to  their 
moral  and  intellectual  deficiencies,  they  do  not  derive  the 
profit  from  them  that  they  otherwise  might. 

If  the  Mexican  lands  held  by  the  inhuman  landowners 
are  so  marvellously  fertile,  and  if  in  addition  the  planter 
exploits  the  Indian  by  robbing  him  of  his  land  and,  conse- 
quently, of  his  means  of  livelihood,  the  Mexican  planter 
ought  to  find  himself  perpetually  in  the  position  of  a  Croesus, 
with  the  credit  of  a  Jewish  plutocrat  in  the  American  and 
European  banking  world.  Exactly  the  contrary  is  true.  In 
general,  the  Mexican  planter  is  of  the  type  of  dyspeptic 
whose  digestion  has  been  ruined  by  worry,  and  who  is  bur- 
dened with  mortgages  drawing  ten,  twelve  and  even  eighteen 
per  cent.  The  vision  of  poverty  and  a  hut,  more  in  keep- 
ing with  his  actual  position  than  the  fictitious  palace  that 
fervid  imagination  has  conjured  up,  hovers  over  him.  The 
agitators,  instead  of  making  a  thorough  study  of  the  problem 


94        WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT   MEXICO 

until  they  reached  the  absolute  truth  concerning  the  planters 
and  the  laborers,  decided  to  destroy  the  prestige  of  the  land- 
owners by  saying  that  they  were  a  set  of  imbeciles  who 
allow  themselves  to  be  robbed  to  a  scandalous  degree  by 
their  overseers,  and  that  they  were  guilty  of  the  crime  of 
burying  national  agriculture  in  the  decaying  shroud  of 
routine. 

This  is  a  demagogic  diatribe,  pure  and  simple,  accepted 
by  people  possessed  of  reason  but  devoid  of  intelligence. 
The  planters  of  Yucatan  were  poor  as  long  as  they  confined 
themselves  to  the  cultivation  of  products  unsuitable  to  the 
conditions  surrounding  them;  but  once  they  discovered  that 
their  climate  and  lands  lent  themselves  admirably  to  the  cul- 
tivation of  the  henequen  (sisal-hemp),  they  bent  all  their 
energies  in  that  direction  and  have  become  the  richest 
planters  in  the  Republic,  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  in 
the  peninsula  the  ordinary  regime  is  observed,  overseers  and 
their  retinue,  honest  or  otherwise,  holding  sway.  The  plant- 
ers of  Morelos  belonged  for  a  long  time  to  the  "poor  rich" 
fraternity,  bearing  the  stigma  of  never  having  gotten  out 
of  the  rut,  because  they  were  using  the  methods  introduced 
by  Hernan  Cortes  in  their  sugar  refineries.  The  truth  is 
that  without  railroads  the  bringing  of  machinery  from 
Vera  Cruz  to  Cuernavaca  was  too  expensive,  and  the  con- 
servative spirit  of  the  planter  still  clung  to  the  Colonial 
period.  The  introduction  of  railroads  into  Mexico  fired  his 
progressive  spirit  to  such  a  degree  that,  before  the  revolt  of 
1910,  the  cultivation  of  sugar-cane,  as  well  as  the  manu- 
facture of  sugar,  had  reached  the  degree  of  perfection  found 
in  the  most  progressive  sugar  plantations  of  Cuba;  and  the 
planters  became  really  rich,  notwithstanding  the  fact  that 
they  were  absentee  landlords,  leaving  their  plantations  in 
the  hands  of  overseers,  who  managed  or  mismanaged,  as  the 
case  might  be. 

The  Mexican  mortgage  banks  and  banks  of  issue  knew 


THE   AGRARIAN    QUESTION  95 

well  that  the  only  plantation  owners  who  were  rich  and 
free,  or  comparatively  free,  of  the  burden  of  mortgages  were 
those  who  possessed  adequate  irrigation  facilities.  Dry  corn 
farming  has  proved  ruinous  in  the  long  run  to  the  Mexican 
farmer,  and  will  eventually  prove  ruinous  in  the  short  run 
as  well. 

When  the  Spanish  King,  Charles  IV,  decreed  the  aliena- 
tion of  the  property  of  the  hospitals,  asylums,  confraterni- 
ties, charitable  establishments,  lay  guardianships,  houses  of 
mercy  and  foundling  asylums,  existing  in  New  Spain,  it  was 
discovered  that  the  planters  in  general  were  completely 
ruined,  because  the  total  amount  of  their  indebtedness  to  the 
Church,  held  in  mortgages,  was  more  than  the  total  value 
of  the  plantations.  In  virtue  of  the  exposition  of  these  facts, 
made  to  the  King  by  the  Vice-Regal  Government,  the  de- 
crees of  the  royal  mandate  of  the  igth  of  September,  1798, 
were  never  carried  into  effect.  The  laws  of  June,  1856, 
and  the  subsequent  Reform  Code,  which  decreed  the  dis- 
memberment of  Church  property,  relieved  almost  all  the 
planters  of  the  burden  of  these  ecclesiastical  mortgages,  leav- 
ing their  properties  free.  Fifty  years  later  we  find  ninety 
per  cent  of  the  Mexican  planters  owing  more  than  fifty  per 
cent  of  the  value  of  their  plantations  to  the  mortgage  hold- 
ers, and  about  twenty  to  twenty-five  per  cent  to  the  banks 
of  issue. 

Taking  into  consideration  the  various  undeniable  facts  I 
have  presented,  which,  even  in  this  isolated  setting,  prove 
beyond  the  possibility  of  doubt  that  in  Mexico  dry  farming 
is  a  ruinous  rather  than  a  prosperous  course,  the  conclusion 
must  be  deduced  in  the  realm  of  politics  or  out  of  it,  with 
the  aid  of  bullets  or  without  them,  through  President  Wil- 
son's intervention  or  without  it,  that  agriculture  in  the 
hands  of  the  indigenous  race  will  be  as  disastrous  as  it  has 
been  in  the  hands  of  the  planter,  because  the  causes  of  this 
disastrous  failure  are  climatological  phenomena,  such  as 


96        WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT   MEXICO 

irregular  rainfall,  frosts  and  a  constantly  increasing  unpro- 
ductiveness of  the  lands,  exhausted  by  years  of  extensive  cul- 
tivation. 

President  Wilson  and  American  thinkers  who  are  inter- 
ested in  Mexican  affairs  on  account  of  American  capital  in- 
vested in  that  country  do  not  seem  to  know  that  the  much- 
talked-of  division  of  lands  is  by  no  means  an  unheard-of 
thing,  a  new  discovery,  but  a  fact  that  was  once  accom- 
plished and  which  resulted  in  the  most  complete  and  dis- 
couraging fiasco. 

If  almost  all  the  independent  Indian  property  owners  sold 
their  lands  for  a  paltry  sum,  it  was  because  they  could  not 
stand  the  repeated  disasters  that  attend  dry  farming  in 
Mexico — disasters  due  to  absolutely  natural  causes  quite  in- 
dependent of  politics.  The  planter  engaged  in  dry  farm- 
ing may  reduce  his  expenses,  forego  all  profits  and  the  inter- 
est on  his  capital;  he  may  live  upon  borrowed  money,  piling 
up  debts  at  an  enormous  rate  of  interest  which  will  finally 
reduce  him  to  poverty.  The  poor  Indian,  however,  notwith- 
standing the  fact  that  he  may  own  his  land,  cannot  reduce 
his  expenses,  because  the  product  of  the  land  even  in  good 
years  is  not  enough  to  enable  him  and  his  family  to  live 
otherwise  than  in  the  very  meagre  way  in  which  they  actu- 
ally live. 

INEVITABLE   CONCLUSIONS 

The  problem  of  feeding  the  people  in  Mexico  and  of  neu- 
tralizing the  terrible  ravages  of  hunger  had,  up  to  1910, 
only  one  rational  solution — irrigation.  It  was  the  only 
means  of  saving  and  enriching  the  people,  as  irrigation 
would  have  considerably  increased  the  extent  of  the  arable 
lands.  It  would  have  given  security  to  the  crops  raised  in 
those  sections  where  the  fertility  of  the  land  permits  of  ex- 
tensive agriculture,  and,  above  all,  reclaimed  that  great  por- 


THE   AGRARIAN   QUESTION  97 

tion  of  the  arable  land  which  is  almost  depleted,  by  permit- 
ting the  introduction  of  the  intensive  method  of  agriculture. 

Unfortunately  for  Mexico,  Senor  Limantour,  noted  for 
his  undoubtedly  upright,  well-balanced  financial  negotia- 
tions, failed  to  recognize  Mexico's  need  in  this  respect. 
The  situation  had  been  well  known  to  men  of  science  since 
1899,  when  the  national  credit  reached  a  height  indicating 
the  possibility  of  undertaking  irrigation  of  the  country  on  a 
large  scale.  The  Department  of  Fomento,  which  is  respon- 
sible for  the  economic  progress  of  the  country,  was  directed 
from  1880  to  1907  by  deluded  persons — honest  and  other- 
wise— or  by  very  honorable  persons  without  initiative  or  a 
real  understanding  of  the  vital  needs  of  the  country. 

Don  Olegario  Molina  assumed  control  of  the  Depart- 
ment of  Fomento  in  1908,  and  was  thoroughly  alive  to  the 
stupendous  obligations  which  his  position  imposed  upon  him, 
and  set  about  energetically  to  try  to  carry  them  out.  He 
began  by  removing  certain  abuses  which  laws  regarding  un- 
claimed lands  had  produced,  and  by  taking  up  the  study  of 
the  national  lands  which  were  under  the  control  of  his  de- 
partment, and  which  were  destined  for  national  and  foreign 
colonization.  He  understood  that  the  salvation  of  the  nation 
depended  upon  not  losing  a  single  drop  of  available  water, 
obtained  either  through  precipitation  or  from  rivers,  lakes, 
ponds  or  wells  to  be  found  on  Government  lands.  He 
worked  until  he  obtained  constitutional  reform  which  cen- 
tralized, under  Federal  control,  all  the  water  rights  which 
were  not  held  under  incontestable  titles.  He  initiated  and 
by  means  of  previous  free  discussion  obtained  the  approba- 
tion by  the  Federal  Congress  of  the  water  laws  which  would 
enable  the  Government  to  undertake  without  delay  the  irri- 
gation of  the  country.  He  obtained  an  appropriation  of 
600,000  pesos  to  defray  the  cost  of  engaging  a  commission 
of  engineers  who  were  to  select  the  sections  to  which  prefer- 
ence should  be  given  in  the  irrigation  plan,  and  to  point  out 


98        WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT   MEXICO 

the  best  means  of  carrying  it  out.  In  1908  Secretary  of 
the  Treasury,  Limantour,  founded  the  financial  institution 
known  as  Caja  de  Prestamos  para  la  Agricultura  y  Fomento 
de  la  Irrigndon  (Loan  Fund  for  Agricultural  Work  and 
the  Development  of  Irrigation),  with  a  Mexican  capital  of 
10,000,000  pesos  silver,  and  obtained,  besides,  a  loan  of 
50,000,000  pesos  silver  with  Government  guarantees.  The 
firm  of  Pearson  &  Son  was  engaged  by  the  Department  of 
Fomento  to  study  the  conditions  in  the  vicinity  of  the  river 
Nazas,  which  is  the  source  of  the  fertility  of  the  "Laguna" 
district,  and  which  has  made  possible  the  cotton  growing  of 
this  region.  A  loan  was  granted  to  the  Sautena  Company 
for  the  irrigation  of  40,000  hectares  of  good  land,  on  condi- 
tion, however,  that  not  less  than  15,000  hectares,  equipped 
with  good  irrigation  facilities,  were  to  be  turned  over  to 
the  Federal  Government  for  the  formation  of  small  agricul- 
tural land  holdings.  The  Department  of  Fomento  granted 
Senor  Cuesta  Gallardo  a  concession  to  drain  part  of  Lake 
Chapala,  which  would  make  possible  the  cultivation  of  a 
great  area  of  notably  fertile  lands.  Under  the  dictatorship 
of  General  Diaz,  3,000,000  pesos  in  cash  was  loaned  to 
Don  Lorenzo  Gonzalez  Trevino,  uncle  of  ex-President 
Francisco  Madero,  to  enable  him  to  complete  the  extensive 
irrigation  plants  he  had  under  construction  on  his  properties 
in  the  state  of  Coahuila. 

I  give  these  facts  to  prove  that  in  the  two  years  previous 
to  the  revolution,  from  1908  to  1910,  the  dictatorship 
authorized  the  appropriation  of  the  large  sum  of  90,000,000 
pesos  silver,  or  $45,000,000,  to  further  irrigating  enter- 
prises. This  amply  proves  that  the  irrigation  work  contem- 
plated by  Don  Olegario  Molina,  the  Secretary  of  Fomento, 
was  serious,  well  planned,  definitely  decided  and  energetic- 
ally launched. 

This  proves  that  the  dictatorship  of  Diaz,  notwithstand- 
ing its  great  deficiencies,  had  taken  up  in  behalf  of  the 


THE   AGRARIAN   QUESTION  99 

nation  the  work  that  a  scientific  study  of  the  Mexican  eco- 
nomical problem  pointed  out  to  be  necessary.  This  prob- 
lem is  unknown  to  the  revolutionary  men  of  the  old  regime 
who  now  want  to  pass  for  men  of  the  new  era,  and  to  the 
really  new  men  who  look  with  ambitious  eyes  to  the  su- 
preme power  without  first  having  proved  themselves  capable 
of  wielding  it. 

In  1910  the  revolution  for  "the  redemption  of  the  peo- 
ple" had  not  seen  the  light  of  day,  but  the  revolution  to 
rebuild  the  shattered  ambitions  of  the  younger  generation 
and  those  of  the  older  generation,  anxious  to  pose  as  belong- 
ing to  the  former,  was  then  put  into  operation.  This  era 
of  political  personalism  gave  rise  to  the  great  social  revolu- 
tion which  is  tearing  Mexico  to  shreds,  and  in  which  the 
President  of  the  United  States,  Mr.  Woodrow  Wilson,  fig- 
ures as  one  of  the  leading  actors. 

What  has  been  the  work  of  this  saving,  and  according  to 
President  Wilson,  necessary  revolution?  In  order  that  no 
one  may  attribute  my  reply  to  anger,  rancor,  partial  or  abso- 
lute blindness,  or  preconception  that  savors  of  the  sociolog- 
ical clinic,  I  shall  quote  directly  the  three  leading  personages 
who  have  figured  in  the  Mexican  revolution:  The  First 
Chief,  Don  Venustiano  Carranza,  the  ex-military  genius, 
Don  Francisco  Villa,  and  the  President  of  the  United  States, 
Mr.  Woodrow  Wilson. 

In  December,  1915,  through  the  most  loyal  section  of  the 
Carranza  press,  the  First  Chief  has  been  quoted  as  saying  in 
an  address  delivered  at  Monterey  or  Laredo:  "Have  faith 
and  patience."  Faith  is  usually  recommended  to  those  who 
do  not  believe  or  who  doubt;  patience  to  those  who  suffer. 

We  are  to  believe,  then,  from  the  impression  given  by 
Senor  Carranza  himself,  that  the  Mexican  people  who  are 
such  ardent  partisans  of  the  revolution,  have  suffered  even 
to  the  point  of  demoralization  after  eighteen  months  of  that 
revolution's  triumph? 


ioo      WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT   MEXICO 

The  ex-' 'military  genius,"  Don  Francisco  Villa,  in  his  last 
manifesto,  addressed  to  the  remainder  of  his  followers  and 
to  the  world,  says  that  the  great  majority  of  the  chiefs  of 
his  army  have  been  nothing  more  than  highwaymen,  who 
took  up  arms  with  no  other  idea  than  loot. 

President  Wilson,  in  as  dignified  a  document  as  his  Mes- 
sage to  the  Congress  of  the  United  States,  says  that  it  can- 
not yet  be  determined  whether  or  not  his  policy  has  bene- 
fited Mexico;  that  he  hopes  for  the  "rebirth"  of  the  nation; 
and  that  the  revolution  he  befriended,  in  so  far  as  he  was 
able,  has  found  few  sympathizers  outside  Mexican  territory. 
In  this  view  no  one  can  concur,  because  up  to  the  present 
time  no  one  has  been  able  to  prove  that  in  Mexican  territory 
and  in  the  hearts  of  the  majority  of  the  Mexican  people 
there  is  to  be  found  an  overwhelming  sympathy  for  a  revo- 
lution that  has  brought  them  to  such  a  pitiable  state  of 
misery  and  suffering.  If  President  Wilson  expects  the  "re- 
birth" of  the  Mexican  nation,  it  means  that  for  the  present 
it  is  submerged  and  that  the  revolution  has  been  the  cause 
of  the  submersion. 

If  the  supreme  object  of  the  revolution  has  been  to  solve 
the  agrarian  problem  by  the  partition  of  lands,  its  advo- 
cates, whom  I  have  just  named,  are  not  proposing  anything 
new.  The  dictatorship  had  this  in  view,  with  the  marked 
difference  that  the  dictatorial  Government  knew  that  before 
distributing  land  among  the  people  it  was  necessary  to  make 
it  productive  by  means  of  irrigation.  The  revolution,  with 
its  avowed  contempt  and  hatred  for  everything  that  repre- 
sents culture,  education  and  science,  will  fail  in  its  attempt 
to  save  the  people  from  hunger  by  putting  them  in  posses- 
sion of  exhausted,  unproductive  lands.  The  end  will  be 
death — death  from  inanition,  sorrow,  desperation  and  hatred 
against  those  whose  duty  it  was  to  have  considered  the  ques- 
tion scientifically  before  drawing  them  into  a  vortex  from 


THE   AGRARIAN   QUESTION  101 

which,  perhaps,  they  may  never  extricate  themselves  as  a 
free  and  independent  people. 

President  Wilson  doubtless  believed  that  the  Mexican 
revolution  was  necessary  because  the  time  had  come  when, 
in  his  opinion,  it  was  expedient  that  the  land  should  be 
turned  over  to  the  Mexican  people,  to  be  cultivated  by  them 
on  their  own  account.  But  as  these  valuable  lands  did  not 
exist,  as  I  have  proved,  the  revolution  was  not  necessary. 
Even  granting  for  the  sake  of  argument  that  the  lands 
existed,  such  a  revolution  was  not  necessary,  because  the 
planters  never  questioned  the  right  of  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment to  enforce  the  constitutional  article  which  gives  it  the 
right  to  condemn  private  property  for  public  utility,  the 
owner  having  been  previously  indemnified.  Never  has  the 
conservative  press,  or  any  planter  as  representative  or  sena- 
tor, or  in  any  capacity  whatsoever,  ever  questioned  in  any 
public  speech  or  writing,  that  the  formation  of  small  land- 
holding  was  not  of  public  utility,  even  if  to  accomplish  this 
it  were  necessary  to  lay  hands  on  the  large  holdings,  pro- 
vided always  that  it  were  done  according  to  terms  prescribed 
by  the  Federal  Constitution,  which  are  those  that  hold  good 
in  all  civilized  nations  in  similar  cases.  The  planters,  there- 
fore, had  given  ample  proof  that  they  did  not  intend  to  im- 
pede, much  less  openly  oppose,  the  progressive  step.  When 
the  construction  of  railroads  began  to  be  actively  taken  up, 
the  condemnation  of  certain  private  tracts  was  necessary  for 
the  proper  development  of  the  lines.  This  met  with  no 
opposition  whatsoever  from  the  landowners,  although  some 
of  them  made  exorbitant  indemnity  claims.  Congress  then 
passed  a  carefully  considered  law,  covering  the  question  of 
expropriated  lands,  fixing  equitable  terms  that  would  be 
acceptable  to  both  the  railroads  and  the  planters.  The  law 
was  accepted  without  appreciable  resistance,  and  Mexico 
constructed  twenty  thousand  kilometers  of  railroads  on 
terms  acceptable  to  both  planters  and  railway  companies. 


102      WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT   MEXICO 

If  the  landholders  of  Mexico  have  never  in  any  way 
shown  the  slightest  opposition  to  the  formation  of  the  small 
landholdings,  why  has  this  revolution  been,  so  to  speak,  dedi- 
cated to  them  with  diabolical  hate?  Let  us  grant  for  the 
sake  of  argument  that  they  had  made  up  their  mind  to  resist 
the  division  of  their  lands  once  they  had  been  irrigated, 
although  the  dictatorial  Government  did  not  give  pecuniary 
assistance  for  the  irrigation  of  private  property  if  the  owners 
did  not  promise  by  public  deeds  to  cede  an  important  part 
of  the  irrigated  lands  for  the  formation  of  small  holdings. 
Supposing,  as  I  have  said,  that  the  planters  had  decided  with- 
out giving  any  outward  sign — because  they  certainly  never 
gave  outward  sign  of  any  such  intention — of  preventing  by 
political  and  even  revolutionary  means  the  formation  of 
small  landholdings  through  legal  expropriation  of  the  large 
holdings,  it  is  not  sensible,  just,  fitting,  or  heroic  for  a  peo- 
ple wishing  to  acquire  lands  which  they  need,  and  which 
they  wish  to  hold  under  conditions  governing  civilized 
nations,  to  rise  with  a  well-defined  program  of  extermina- 
tion, breathing  an  infernal  hate,  against  an  absolutely  legiti- 
mate property-owning  class  before  that  class  has  refused  in 
a  clear  and  definite  manner  to  satisfy  the  popular  demand. 

Until  President  Wilson  gives  the  American  public,  the 
'Mexican  public  and  the  rest  of  the  world  a  proof,  or  even 
half  a  proof,  that  the  Mexican  landowners  were  the  enemies 
of  the  movement  to  improve  the  condition  of  the  people  by 
the  formation  of  small  landholdings,  he  has  no  right,  based 
upon  ethics  or  science,  or  upon  the  most  elementary  notions 
of  civilization,  to  state  before  so  eminently,  world-wide  re- 
spected an  assemblage  as  the  Congress  of  the  United  States 
that  the  tremendous,  sanguinary  Mexican  revolution,  fairly 
wading  in  anarchy,  was  necessary. 


PART  SECOND 

THE  TRUTH  CONCERNING  THE  ORIGIN  OF 
THE  MEXICAN  REVOLUTION  AND  ITS  DE- 
VELOPMENT UP  TO  THE  TIME  OF 
PRESIDENT  WILSON'S  INTER- 
VENTION 


• 


CHAPTER  I 

A  BOXER  REVOLUTION  PROTECTED  BY  THE 
UNITED  STATES  GOVERNMENT 

A    CHALLENGE    TO    LATIN-AMERICA    AND   THE    SOCIOLOGISTS 
OF  THE  WORLD 

IN  its  origin  the  Mexican  revolution  had  a  markedly 
Boxer  character  and  was  directed  principally  against 
the  influence,  prestige  and  interests  of  the  United 
States.  This  is  a  fact,  new  to  some,  perhaps,  which  I  am 
going  to  prove. 

No  one,  not  even  those  who  have  had  only  a  superficial 
understanding  of  the  Mexican  revolution,  or  a  single  one 
of  the  inhabitants  of  Mexico  capable  of  holding  an  opinion 
about  public  affairs,  can  ignore  the  fact  that  the  origin  of  the 
revolt  that  dethroned  the  dictator,  General  Porfirio  Diaz, 
was  hatred  of  the  Cientificos,  revealed  in  the  universal,  pro- 
phetic cry,  "Mueran  los  cientificos!"  (Death  to  the  Cientif- 
icos!) Even  today,  1915,  for  the  popular  Mexican  imagi- 
nation dentifico  means  the  sworn  enemy  of  the  people,  more 
criminal  than  the  parricide,  the  murderer  of  innocent  chil- 
dren, or  the  traitor. 

In  a  few  words  I  shall  say  who  the  Cientificos  were.  No 
government  can  exist,  even  under  a  democratic  or  dictatorial 
regime,  without  a  governing  aristocracy,  always  intellectual. 
In  the  eighteen  last  years  of  the  dictatorship  of  General 
Porfirio  Diaz,  the  Cientificos  represented  this  governing  aris- 
tocracy, and  were  attacked  like  all  aristocracies  that  have 
ever  formed  a  part  of  ultra-personal  governments. 

I  make  haste  to  calm  the  uneasiness  of  any  of  my  readers 

103 


104      WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT   MEXICO 

who  may  fear  a  wearisome  analysis  of  the  much- talked -of 
dictatorship  of  General  Diaz.  I  have  no  intention  of  doing 
anything  of  the  kind;  my  exposition  will  be  synthetical  and 
short.  It  will  consist  simply  in  the  exposition  of  certain  un- 
deniable and  convincing  facts  which  will  destroy  the  theories 
and  enthusiasms  of  those  who  have  approved  and  applauded 
the  overthrow  of  the  long-lived  Mexican  tyrant. 


MEMORANDUM   CONCERNING  THE  NATIONAL  CREDIT 

In  February,  1893,  Sefior  Jose  Ives  Limantour  was  ap- 
pointed Secretary  of  the  Treasury  and  Public  Credit,  and  in 
October  of  that  same  year  the  Cientificos  rose  to  power, 
choosing  Sefior  Limantour  for  their  leader.  At  that  time 
the  national  treasury  was  bankrupt  and  the  six  per  cent 
Federal  foreign  bonds  were  quoted  in  London  at  sixty  per 
cent  of  their  face  value.  On  January  I,  1910,  Mexico's 
foreign  debt,  the  interest  on  which  had  been  reduced  from 
six  to  five  per  cent  by  the  refund  of  1899,  was  quoted  above 
par.  Taking  advantage  of  the  high  credit  Mexico  then  en- 
joyed, Sefior  Limantour  went  to  Europe  in  1910  with  the 
object  of  again  refunding,  which  would  reduce  the  interest 
on  the  debt  to  four  per  cent.  He  succeeded  in  thus  con- 
verting one-half  of  it,  but  it  was  impossible  to  complete  the 
transaction  because  Madero's  so-called  redemptory  revolu- 
tion had  burst  forth. 

I  challenge  Latin-America  to  produce  a  single  example  of 
a  Hispanic- American  nation  that  has  ever  succeeded  in  hav- 
ing its  national  debt  quoted  at  par  with  an  annual  interest 
of  four  per  cent.  Expecting  to  be  impugned  if  my  data  are 
not  correct,  I  assert  that  no  Latin-American  administration 
has  ever  been  able  to  place  its  country  in  the  same  rank  of 
credit  as  that  enjoyed  by  Mexico  under  the  financial  regime 
of  the  Cientificos. 


A   BOXER   REVOLUTION  105 


FIRST  MEMORANDUM  ON  BUREAUCRATIC  CANNIBALISM 

In  the  eighteen  years  that  Senor  Limantour  was  at  the 
helm  of  financial  affairs  in  Mexico,  he  negotiated  the  fol- 
lowing Government  loans:  In  1893  he  negotiated  in 
Europe  a  Government  loan  of  £3,000,000  sterling,  or  $15,- 
000,000;  refunded  in  1899  when  an  important  loan  of  £20,- 
000,000  sterling  was  affected  through  the  firm  of  Bleich- 
roeder  &  Company  of  Berlin.  From  1902  onward  he 
issued  five  series  of  five  per  cent  silver  bonds,  each  series  re- 
deemable at  20,000,000  pesos  silver,  or  a  total  in  gold  of 
$50,000,000.  In  1904  he  negotiated  with  the  New  York 
house  of  J.  Pierpont  Morgan  a  loan  of  $40,000,000.  The 
total  amount  of  the  loans  negotiated  by  Senor  Limantour 
during  his  eighteen  years  of  tenure  of  office  reached  $105,- 
000,000. 

The  voraciousness  of  Latin-American  bureaucracies,  which 
I  have  called  cannibalism,  is  well  known;  they  swallow 
European  loans  of  millions,  which  are  to  them  what  a  morsel 
of  pate  de  foie  gras  would  be  to  an  insatiable  glutton. 

I  challenge  Latin-America  to  tell  me  which  of  the  nations 
that  come  under  this  designation,  having  the  credit  that 
Mexico  had  in  Europe  and  the  United  States,  has  limited 
itself  to  negotiating  Government  loans  at  the  rate  of  $6.25 
per  inhabitant,  in  the  long  period  of  eighteen  years.  Pro- 
visionally, I  take  it  upon  myself  to  answer,  none. 

These  bureaucracies  constitute  the  real  and  direful  oppres- 
sion of  the  unfortunate  Latin-American  peoples  who,  more 
than  liberty,  need  honest  government,  and  to  be  relieved  of 
the  horde  of  public  officials  which  preys  upon  them.  It 
bodes  ill  for  the  future  of  these  nations  that  each  of  these 
bureaucracies  is  increasing  yearly  the  national  expense 
budget;  that  they  are  responsible  for  deficits  more  or  less 
large;  and  that  to  shield  themselves  they  float  foreign  loans, 


io6      WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT   MEXICO 

or  take  from  the  taxes  what  ought  to  be  devoted  to  the  ma- 
terial improvement  of  the  country. 

In  1894,  under  the  regime  of  the  Cientificos,  besides  the 
outlay  for  the  national  debt,  and  the  army  and  navy,  there 
remained  for  the  bureaucracy  20,000,000  pesos  annually.  In 
1910,  the  year  the  Madero  revolution  broke  out,  notwith- 
standing the  development  of  the  country,  the  Federal  bureau- 
cracy received  70,000,000  pesos,  so  that  in  seventeen  years 
there  was  an  increase  of  40,000,000  pesos  to  meet  the  legiti- 
mate expenses  of  the  Government,  and  for  the  insatiable  bu- 
reaucratic cannibalism  which  existed  notwithstanding  Sefior 
Limantour's  constant  war  against  it.  This  war  finally  ended 
by  making  him  the  most  unpopular  man  in  Mexico,  as  he 
would  have  been  in  all  Latin-American  countries  if  he  had 
been  the  minister  of  finance.  General  Diaz,  clever  politician 
that  he  was,  knew  that  it  was  impossible  to  govern  Latin- 
Americans  without  a  certain  amount  of  "palm  oil,"  and,  not- 
withstanding his  appreciation  of  Sefior  Limantour's  high 
ideals,  found  himself  obliged,  in  order  to  preserve  peace,  to 
make  concessions. 

As  he  was  a  clever  politician  General  Diaz  never  denied 
a  "slice,"  a  "bottle,"  a  "demijohn,"  or  a  "wild  boar  served 
with  mayonnaise";  but  when  the  hour  came  to  fulfill  his 
seductive  promises  he  always  said  that  Senor  Limantour  op- 
posed their  fulfillment  and  that,  as  he  could  not  suddenly 
dismiss  an  official  who  had  rendered  such  valuable  services 
to  his  administration,  his  friends,  his  very  dear  friends,  his 
ever-faithful  friends,  ought  to  grant  him  a  little  time  in 
which  to  replace  him.  The  result  of  this  astute  political 
method  was  that  General  Diaz's  popularity  began  to  wane, 
and  Senor  Limantour's  to  disappear  altogether. 

But  to  return  to  figures.  The  increase  in  the  expense 
budget  of  40,000,000  pesos  silver  in  eighteen  years  corre- 
sponds to  an  arithmetical  progression  which  in  round  figures 
equals  2,300,000  pesos  silver  per  annum. 


A   BOXER   REVOLUTION  107 

In  1911,  after  seventeen  years,  the  Federal  receipts,  which 
in  1894  amounted  to  45,000,000,  increased  to  112,000,000 
pesos.  This  increase  amounted  to  67,000,000  pesos,  corre- 
sponding to  an  arithmetical  progression  which  equals  4,200,- 
ooo  pesos  per  annum. 

We  have  then: 

Progressive  increase  per  year  in  expenses..  2,300,000  pesos  silver 
Progressive     increase    in    Federal     receipts 

per  year   4,200,000  pesos  silver 

This  constant  increase  of  the  Federal  receipts  over  the 
expenditures  enabled  the  dictatorship  under  General  Diaz  to 
establish  a  treasury  fund  which  reached  a  maximum  in  coin 
of  84,000,000  pesos  silver. 

I  challenge  Latin-America  to  tell  me  in  which  of  the  na- 
tions that  come  under  this  designation  is  to  be  found  the 
remarkable  phenomenon  of  a  nation  in  which  the  receipts 
have  considerably  exceeded  the  expenditures. 

I  reply  unhesitatingly  that  this  phenomenon,  outside  of 
Mexico,  and  in  the  space  of  one  hundred  years,  has  occurred 
once  only — in  the  island  of  Cuba  when  the  administration 
of  its  affairs  was  in  the  hands  of  that  true  patriot  Senor 
Tomas  Estrada  Palma.  But  this  ideal  condition  in  Cuba 
lasted  only  four  years,  whereas  in  Mexico,  under  an  admin- 
istration of  supposed  thieves — as  President  Wilson  believes 
— it  lasted  without  interruption  for  sixteen  years. 

THIRD  MEMORANDUM  CONCERNING  BUREAUCRATIC 
CANNIBALISM 

More  than  three  hundred  governments  have  been  over- 
thrown in  the  Latin-American  countries  since  they  attained 
their  independence.  All  of  them  left  empty  treasuries,  and 
the  majority  left  the  nation  utterly  devoid  of  credit  at  home 
and  abroad.  The  only  exception  of  which  I  know  is  the  one 
already  mentioned  of  the  Cuban  President  who,  when  he 
vacated  the  presidential  chair,  left  $27,000,000,  which  un- 


io8      WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT   MEXICO 

doubtedly  greatly  influenced  the  avalanche  of  "democratic 
principles"  that  overwhelmed  him.  In  Mexico,  when  Gen- 
eral Diaz  resigned,  Senor  Limantour  handed  over  to  the 
new  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  Senor  Ernesto  Madero,  uncle 
of  the  "Saviour  of  his  Country,"  72,000,000  pesos  silver  in 
coin,  deposited  in  the  National  Treasury,  in  the  National 
Bank  of  Mexico,  and  in  the  most  powerful  banks  of  New 
York,  London,  Paris  and  Germany. 

I  can  safely  say  that,  outside  the  case  of  Cuba  already 
mentioned,  no  overthrown  Latin-American  Government  has 
ever  left  in  its  national  treasury  the  amount  left  by  the  so- 
called  thieving  dictatorship  of  General  Diaz  in  the  Mexican 
treasury. 

MEMORANDUM  ON  ONE  OF  THE  MOST  SERIOUS  ACCUSATIONS 
BROUGHT    AGAINST    THE    DIAZ    DICTATORSHIP 

Senor  Jose  N.  Macias,  a  revolutionary  Maderista  writer, 
charges  the  dictatorship  with  having  raised  the  national  debt 
as  high  as  300,000,000  pesos  silver,  or  $150,000,000,  thus 
laying  a  heavy  burden  on  the  Mexican  people  for  a  great 
many  years. 

Apparently  Senor  Macias  does  not  know  his  subject.  The 
total  amount  of  the  national  debt  at  the  time  of  General 
Diaz's  resignation  was,  not  300,000,000,  but  458,000,000 
pesos  silver. 

But  the  accuser,  it  would  seem,  is  entirely  unaware  of  the 
use  to  which  these  458,000,000  pesos  silver  were  put,  and 
it  will  be  my  pleasure  to  inform  him  in  a  few  words,  and  in 
such  a  manner  as  will  render  impossible  any  impugning  of 
my  statement. 

In  1824  the  Mexican  nation  contracted  a  debt  in  London 
of  32,000,000  pesos  silver,  and  at  the  same  time  another  was 
laid  upon  it  by  claims  made  by  foreign  governments  in  the 
name  of  their  respective  subjects.  These  debts,  once  they  were 
consolidated,  were  classified  as,  the  English  Debt,  the  Spanish 


A   BOXER   REVOLUTION  109 

Debt,  the  Padre  Moran  Debt,  and  the  United  States  Debt, 
the  latter  being  represented  by  the  well-known  Carvajal 
bonds.  With  the  exception  of  the  United  States  debt  the 
total  of  these  debts  amounted  in  1851  to  50,000,000  pesos 
gold.  When  Diaz  assumed  the  reins  of  government  in 
1877  he  found  that  his  country  was  dishonored  before  the 
world  because  of  its  failure  to  liquidate  these  legitimate 
claims  which  it  had  bound  itself  in  honor  to  meet.  In  1885 
the  total  amount  of  the  Mexican  foreign  debt,  including 
unpaid  interest,  was  100,000,000  pesos,  and  the  Secretary 
of  the  Treasury,  Senor  Manuel  Dublan,  through  various 
transactions,  was  able  in  1888  to  consolidate  the  Mexican 
foreign  debt  into  six  per  cent  bonds,  representing  a  nominal 
value  of  £10,500,000  sterling  or  52,500,000  Mexican  pesos 
gold. 

The  Mexican  national  debt  was  enormous,  and  Senor 
Dublan  devoted  all  his  energies  to  it.  By  means  of  various 
transactions  with  the  creditors  he  was  able  to  make  a  very 
advantageous  settlement  for  the  country,  reducing  the  debt 
to  53,000,000  pesos  silver,  or  $26,500,000. 

When  silver  depreciated  so  low  as  to  be  worth  in  gold 
half,  or  even  less  than  half,  its  value,  the  Mexican  debt  of 
.52,500,000  pesos  gold  existing  in  1888  was  converted  into 
a  debt  of  105,000,000  pesos  silver  which,  added  to  the  53,- 
000,000  pesos  silver,  amount  of  the  previous  debt,  equals  a 
total  of  158,000,000  pesos  silver,  corresponding  to  the  na- 
tional debt  previous  to  the  dictatorship  of  General  Diaz, 
and  which  had  been  contracted  in  great  part  after  1824. 
Consequently,  the  dictatorship  of  General  Diaz  can  be  held 
accountable  for  the  distribution  of  300,000,000  pesos  silver 
only,  an  amount  which  at  his  retirement  remained  in  the 
nature  of  a  national  debt. 

A  fact  which  no  one  can  doubt  or  deny  is  that  during  the 
dictatorship  of  General  Diaz  twenty  thousand  kilometers  of 
railways  were  constructed  in  Mexico,  subsidized  by  the  Gov- 


i  io      WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT   MEXICO 

ernment  to  the  amount  of  170,000,000  pesos  silver,  or  $80,- 
000,000,  an  average  of  $4,250  per  kilometer. 

Mexico  has  a  superficial  area  of  2,000,000  square  kilo- 
meters, and  had  a  population  of  10,000,000  at  the  time  the 
railways  began  to  be  developed  by  American  capital.  The 
population  in  1910  had  increased  to  15,000,000,  but  of  this 
only  3,000,000  were  sufficiently  civilized  to  increase  the  in- 
come of  the  railroads  by  their  use  of  them.  Before  the 
exploitation  of  the  petroleum  wells,  which  was  taken  up  on 
a  large  scale  in  1908,  fuel  for  railway  motive  power  was 
very  expensive.  I  ask  all  men  versed  in  railway  matters  to 
say  whether — taking  into  consideration  the  unfavorable  con- 
ditions that  existed  in  Mexico — it  is  a  reprehensible  or  a 
praiseworthy  act  for  a  Government  to  construct  twenty 
thousand  kilometers  of  railway  for  the  benefit  of  its  country, 
assigning  an  average  subsidy  of  $4,250  per  kilometer? 

The  Tehuantepec  Railroad,  with  its  magnificent  artificial 
ports  of  Puerto  Mexico  and  Salina  Cruz,  cost  115,000,000 
pesos  silver.  This  estimate  does  not  take  into  account  the 
capital  squandered  by  mismanagement  and  dishonesty  before 
Pearson  &  Son  took  the  work  in  hand,  and  before  the  advent 
of  Sefior  Limantour  and  the  Cientificos,  with  the  Secretary 
of  the  Treasury  at  their  head.  The  Tehuantepec  Railroad 
is  not  a  fairy  story,  the  creation  of  the  ingenious  newspaper 
man;  it  is  a  fact  known  to  the  world  as  a  work  of  merit, 
and  well  worth  115,000,000  pesos  silver  or  $57,500,000. 

The  construction  work  at  the  port  of  Vera  Cruz,  which 
cost  33,000,000  pesos  silver,  is  also  well  known  to  the  world. 
One  of  the  most  important  works  undertaken  by  the  dictator- 
ship was  the  draining  of  the  Valley  of  Mexico,  an  admirable 
and  most  successful  work  which  cost  14,000,000  pesos  silver. 
The  City  of  Mexico  owes  everything  to  the  dictatorship  of 
General  Diaz.  Floods  formerly  inundated  the  city  every 
year  during  the  rainy  season,  plagues  scourged  it,  and  most 
unsanitary  conditions  prevailed,  owing  to  the  scarcity  of 


A   BOXER   REVOLUTION  in 

water  for  the  greater  part  of  the  year.  Under  the  dictator- 
ship a  splendid  system  of  sewers  was  built;  water  was 
brought  from  the  springs  of  Xochimilco,  and  distributed 
according  to  the  most  scientific  modern  methods;  streets 
were  well  paved  and  good  pavements  were  laid.  All  this 
cost  only  26,000,000  pesos  or  $13,000,000. 

Under  the  same  regime  splendid  buildings  were  erected 
in  the  City  of  Mexico.  Among  these  may  be  mentioned  the 
Opera  House,  not  yet  completed,  which  would  have  com- 
peted in  magnificence  with  the  Grand  Opera  of  Paris;  the 
Law  Courts  building,  also  in  course  of  construction;  the 
Post  Office  building,  undoubtedly  one  of  the  finest  buildings 
in  the  world ;  the  General  Hospital ;  the  Insane  Asylum ;  the 
Department  of  Railways  building,  classic  and  refined  in  its 
style  of  architecture ;  the  monument  commemorating  the  cen- 
tennial of  Mexico's  independence,  which  has  been  praised  by 
many  foreign  artists.  Besides  the  sums  devoted  to  luxurious 
buildings  destined  for  political  and  administrative  purposes, 
several  million  pesos  were  devoted  to  the  construction  of 
training-schools  for  teachers.  Adding  to  these  expenditures 
the  amounts  paid  as  indemnification  for  property  condemned 
for  these  various  public  edifices,  the  total  amount  is  50,- 
000,000  pesos. 

Besides  the  construction  work  at  Vera  Cruz,  some  indis- 
pensable improvements  were  made  at  the  port  of  Manzanillo 
on  the  Pacific,  and  at  that  of  Tampico  on  the  Atlantic, 
amounting  in  all  to  11,000,000  pesos. 

Without  taking  into  consideration  works  of  minor  impor- 
tance which  were  carried  out  under  the  dictatorship,  it  has 
been  amply  proved  that  the  enormous  sum  of  419,000,000 
pesos  silver  was  distributed  in  works  that  were  well  worth 
while,  so  much  so  that  neither  the  demagogic  press  nor  revo- 
lutionary writers  have  dared  to  censure  them. 

I  challenge  all  Latin-America,  continental  as  well  as  in- 
sular, to  point  out  to  me  a  single  case  in  which  one  of  the 


ii2      WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT   MEXICO 

nations  composing  this  group  has  spent  in  public  works  an 
amount  greater  than  the  total  face  value  of  the  loans  nego- 
tiated by  the  Government.  It  is  to  be  clearly  understood 
that  I  refer  to  the  face  value  of  these  loans,  as  none  of  them 
was  acquired  at  par;  consequently,  the  cost  of  the  work 
greatly  exceeds  the  real  amount  received  from  the  loans. 

I  assert  that  there  is  no  Hispanic-American  nation  that 
can  produce  a  case  similar  to  the  one  I  have  outlined. 

CONTINUATION    OF    CHALLENGES    TO    LATIN-AMERICA    AND 
THE  SOCIOLOGISTS  OF  THE  WORLD 

By  January  I,  1910,  the  revolution,  ostensibly  based 
upon  hatred  of  the  Cientificos,  had  taken  form  in  the  minds 
of  the  people.  The  conspirators,  excepting  a  few  anti- 
reelectionists,  such  as  Madero,  had  long  been  covertly  con- 
spiring against  the  dictatorship,  continuing  to  receive  salaries 
and  favors  from  the  hands  of  the  generous  Caesar,  but  un- 
willing to  attack  their  patron  openly  until  they  saw  him 
about  to  fall. 

On  January  i,  1910,  the  following  names  appeared  on 
the  list  of  high  officials  in  the  dictatorial  Government: 

Secretary  of  Foreign  Affairs,  Senor  Ignacio  Mariscal; 
Secretary  of  the  Interior,  Senor  Ramon  Corral;  Secretary 
of  Justice,  Senor  Justino  Fernandez;  Secretary  of  Public 
Instruction,  Senor  Justo  Sierra;  Secretary  of  Fomento, 
Senor  Olegario  Molina;  Secretary  of  Public  Works,  Senor 
Leandro  Fernandez;  Secretary  of  War  and  Navy,  General 
Manuel  Gonzales  Cosio;  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  Senor 
Jose  Ives  Limantour. 

I  cannot  recollect  ever  to  have  seen  the  name  of  any  one 
of  these,  except  that  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  Jose 
Ives  Limantour,  mentioned  as  a  thief  in  any  of  the  revolu- 
tionary publications,  and,  as  I  have  already  sufficiently  proved 
what  kind  of  a  thief  the  man  was  who  arranged  the  na- 


A   BOXER   REVOLUTION  113 

tional  debt,  and  who  negotiated  foreign  loans,  it  is  not  nec- 
essary to  make  further  comment.  I  challenge  the  banking 
world  of  New  York,  London,  Germany,  Paris  and  Holland, 
accustomed  to  dealing  with  Latin-American  financiers  who 
wish  to  place  loans  on  behalf  of  their  governments,  with 
offers  of  a  rake-off  for  either  side,  to  say  that  Senor  Liman- 
tour  was  not  one  of  the  most  upright — perhaps  the  most 
upright — of  all  the  Latin- American  financiers  whom  they 
have  known.  All  financiers  know  that  in  government  trans- 
actions involving  hundreds  of  millions  of  dollars  it  is  a  com- 
paratively easy  thing  to  manipulate  them  so  as  to  get  pos- 
session of  several  for  one's  self.  It  is  absurd  to  say  that  a 
man  who  could  with  impunity  have  pocketed  ten  or  twenty 
millions,  or  even  more,  should  demean  himself  by  stooping 
to  grab  two  or  three  million  dollars,  not  by  peculation,  but 
by  extortion. 

But  I  make  all  manner  of  concessions.  I  admit  that  Li- 
mantour  may  have  been  a  scoundrel,  exceedingly  clever  at 
the  game  of  advancing  his  private  interests  at  the  expense 
of  the  nation;  nevertheless,  lucky  might  the  Latin-American 
nation  have  considered  herself  which  had  Limantour  for 
her  Secretary  of  the  Treasury. 

I  challenge  all  Latin-America  and  all  the  sociologists  of 
the  world  to  tell  me  if  seven  out  of  eight  of  a  government's 
secretaries  are  considered  upright  even  by  the  opposition, 
only  one  being  classified  as  a  thief — a  thief  whose  operations 
have  always  benefited  his  country — does  such  a  government 
merit  to  be  universally  execrated  for  its  dishonesty? 

The  dictatorship  has  been  accused  of  putting  a  band  of 
thieves  at  the  head  of  the  state  governments. 


ii4      WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT   MEXICO 

LIST  OF  THE  GOVERNORS  OF  THE  STATES 

Aguascalientes       Alejandro  Vazquez  del  Mercado      Civil 
Carapeche 

Coahuila  Jesus  del  Valle  Civil 

Colima  Alamillo  Civil 

Chiapas  R.  Rabasa  Civil 

Chihuahua  Jose  M.  Sanchez  Civil 

Durango  Esteban  Fernandez  Civil 

Guanajauto  Joaquin  Obregon  Gonzalez  Civil 

Guerrero  Damian  Flores  Civil 

Hidalgo  Pedro  L.  Rodriguez  Civil 

Jalisco  Miguel  Ahumada  Serai-Military 

Mexico  Fernando  Gonzalez  Military 

Michoacan  Aristeo  Mercado  Civil 

Morelos  Pablo  Escandon  Serai-Military 

Nuevo  Leon  General  Mier  Military 

Oaxaca  Emilio  Pimentel  Civil 

Puebla  Mucio  Martinez  Military 

Queretaro  Francisco  G.  Cosio  Civil 
San  Luis  Potosi     Jose  Maria  Espinosa  y  Cuevas       Civil 

Sinaloa  Diego  Redo  Civil 

Sonora  F.  Cubillas  Civil 

Tabasco  Policarpo  Valenzuela  Civil 

Tamaulipas  Juan  Castello  Civil 

Tlaxcala  Prospero  Cahuantzi  Military 

Vera  Cruz  Teodoro  A.  Dehesa  Civil 

Yucatan  Munoz  Aristegui  Civil 

Zacatecas  Ortiz  de  Zarate  Civil 

Outside  of  Mexico  this  list  will  not  have  much  signifi- 
cance, except  in  the  relative  value  of  the  civil  and  military 
elements  that  compose  it.  A  glance  will  convince  one  that 
General  Diaz  governed  through  the  civil  rather  than  the 
military  branch,  as  there  are  three  military  governors  and 
two  semi-military  as  against  twenty-two  civilians. 

As  regards  probity,  there  were  eighteen  governors  who 
fulfilled  their  charge  honorably,  and  nine  who  were 
scoundrels. 

Caius  Licinius  Verres,  the  famous  Sicilian  pretor,  repro- 
bated by  Cicero,  said  that  if  one  were  a  pro-consul  or  a 


A   BOXER   REVOLUTION  115 

pretor  it  was  necessary  to  steal  three  fortunes  from  the  na- 
tion: one  to  pay  the  sponsors  who  had  obtained  the  lucra- 
tive position;  another  to  bribe  the  judges  when  the  dis- 
pleasure of  a  censor  or  a  tribune  brought  one  into  the  law 
courts;  and  a  third  to  be  devoted  to  the  family.  In  Latin- 
America  there  exist  even  more  ramifications  than  in  the 
Rome  of  Cicero,  because  the  pro-consul  or  pretor  finds  him- 
self obliged  regularly  to  appropriate  six  fortunes:  three  for 
the  purposes  Verres  has  assigned,  the  fourth  to  support  the 
illegitimate  family,  the  fifth  to  carry  on  a  scandalous  pros- 
titution, and  the  sixth  for  any  unforeseen  case.  I  am  forced 
to  repeat  the  words  of  Le  Bon,  which  I  have  quoted  before: 
"In  Latin-America  the  political  problem,  fundamentally  and 
in  general,  is  a  problem  of  public  thieving."  I  should,  how- 
ever, say  that  the  nine  dishonest  governors  were  not  the  cause 
of  disturbance.  In  order  to  keep  their  posts  they  were 
obliged  to  maintain  a  good  administration,  paying  all  their 
employees  and  creditors  punctually.  At  the  first  indication 
of  disorder  General  Diaz  dismissed  them. 

If  Mexico  was  a  country  of  rotten  politicians,  I  challenge 
Latin-America  and  all  the  sociologists  of  the  world  to  say 
whether  it  is  not  a  prodigy,  worthy  of  being  registered  in 
letters  of  light,  that  two-thirds  of  the  pro-consuls  of  the 
arrogant  Caesar  were  honest  and  only  one- third  rascals? 

The  accusation  of  injustice  has  been  brought  against  the 
courts  of  the  Diaz  dictatorship.  The  accusation  is  merited. 
However,  the  tribunals  depending  on  the  will  of  the  Caesar 
injured  only  the  rich — the  class  hated  by  the  revolutionists 
— with  their  unjust  sentences.  The  revolutionists,  there- 
fore, should  have  rejoiced  that  the  dictatorship  laid  a  heavy 
hand  on  those  whom  they  never  ceased  to  proclaim  the 
oppressors  of  the  people.  The  middle  class,  the  real  owner 
of  the  country  and  the  director  of  its  destinies  at  that  time, 
was  outside  the  range  of  the  evils  brought  about  by  the 
workings  of  coerced  tribunals,  because  being  the  political 


n6      WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT   MEXICO 

class  par  excellence  the  judges,  the  secretaries,  the  President 
himself,  feared  them.  The  bureaucrats,  as  a  rule,  were 
plebeians  who  spent  more  than  they  earned,  and  who  con- 
sequently made  it  a  business  to  pile  up  debts,  the  unfortu- 
nate creditors  generally  losing  their  suits  if  the  cases  came 
to  law,  as  the  debtors  controlled  the  press  and  possessed  the 
power  to  intimidate  and  cow  them. 

The  popular  class,  both  rural  and  urban,  was  absolutely 
proletarian,  and  only  the  middle-class  merchants  and  the 
property-owning  class,  representing  a  small  minority,  had 
cause  to  complain  against  the  autocratic  methods  of  the 
courts. 

I  challenge  all  Latin- America  to  tell  me  if  in  the  great 
majority  of  the  Hispanic- American  nations  the  courts  are 
not  venal  even  where  no  dictatorship  exists,  and  similar,  or 
even  worse,  than  the  Porfirian  courts,  in  the  countries  ruled 
by  dictators. 

THE    REAL    CRIME    OF    THE    DIAZ    DICTATORSHIP 

Universal  life  is  preserved  by  the  renewal  of  the  ele- 
ments of  each  organism  at  different  periods.  Individual  life 
is  the  constant,  although  not  simultaneous,  renewal  of  the 
organic  tissues.  Without  renewal  there  is  decay,  and  decay 
leads  to  the  grave.  General  Diaz's  ideal  was  the  petrifica- 
tion  of  the  State.  He  had  permitted  himself  to  be  led  into 
the  irreparable  error  of  fearing  any  change  in  the  personnel 
of  his  immediate  political  entourage,  and  in  that  of  the  civil 
branches  as  well.  The  consequence  was  that  society,  seeing 
that  a  death's-head  had  taken  the  place  of  the  living  man, 
was  shaken  out  of  its  usual  tranquil  mode  of  life,  and  began 
making  mental  excursions  into  the  revolutionary  dream- 
realm,  paving  the  way  for  the  creation  of  the  reality. 

In  1910  General  Diaz  was  eighty  years  old.  Of  the 
eight  Cabinet  members,  two  were  past  eighty  and  the 
youngest  was  fifty-five.  Of  twenty  state  governors,  two 


A   BOXER   REVOLUTION  117 

were  past  eighty,  six  past  seventy,  seventeen  past  sixty  and 
the  youngest  was  forty-six.  The  Senate  was  an  asylum  for 
gouty  decrepits,  and  the  House  of  Representatives,  which 
ought  to  have  vibrated  with  youthful  vigor  and  activity,  was 
composed  of  a  host  of  veterans,  relieved  by  a  group  of 
patriarchs.  One  of  the  newspapers  called  the  Government 
offices  the  "Pyramids  of  Egypt,  joined  to  the  Pyramids  of 
Teotihuacan,"  because  of  the  number  of  mummies  they  con- 
tained. Such  an  administration  could  not  be  called  pro- 
gressive, not  even  conservative;  it  was  a  home  for  the  aged, 
with  a  standing  account  at  the  druggists.  The  younger  gen- 
eration was  justified  in  wanting  to  expel  the  hordes  of  fos- 
sils which  had  fastened  upon  the  public  posts  as  the  trilobites 
of  old  upon  the  rocks. 

Two  causes  may  be  assigned  for  the  total  degeneration  of 
a  dictator:  too  great  age  and  too  long  tenure  of  office.  The 
latter,  as  is  well  known,  corrupts  and  hardens,  all  the  more 
actively  the  nearer  it  approaches  absolutism.  General  Diaz 
had  exercised  the  supreme  power  uninterruptedly  for  twenty- 
five  years;  General  Reyes  had  been  the  undisputed  and  des- 
potic ruler  of  Nuevo  Leon  for  twenty-three  years,  and  Senor 
Limantour  had  been  the  absolute  dictator  of  the  economic 
and  financial  policy  of  the  country  for  eighteen  years.  Fol- 
lowing the  inexorable  laws  of  sociology,  all  three  had  out- 
lived their  usefulness  in  the  political  world,  and  could  not  be 
anything  but  a  drawback  to  their  country,  however  worthy 
they  might  be  personally. 

Strength  is  not  proof  against  that  insidious  form  of  moral 
poison  which  gradually  enervates  the  mind  of  the  man  who 
believes  himself  to  be  infallible.  The  most  characteristic 
trait  of  such  a  man  is  the  loss  of  proportion,  of  sentiment,  of 
sensation,  and  even  of  reality  itself.  He  ends  by  trying  to 
govern  an  imaginary  world  with  beings  of  flesh  and  bone. 

"The  Emperor  (Napoleon  I)  is  all  system,  all  illusion, 
as  it  is  impossible  not  to  be  when  one  is  all  imagination. 


n8      WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT   MEXICO 

Whosoever  has  wished  to  follow  his  evolution  will  have 
noted  that  he  ended  by  seeing  an  imaginary  England,  an 
imaginary  finance,  an  imaginary  nobility  and  above  all  an 
imaginary  France,  and  in  these  latter  days  an  imaginary 
Congress  (referring  to  the  International  Congress  convoked 
by  the  opposing  powers)."  * 

General  Diaz  ended  by  living  in  an  imaginary  world,  in- 
cluding the  view  of  his  own  personality  and  that  of  Madero, 
as  we  shall  see. 

A  sociological  principle  of  a  dictatorial  regime  is  that 
when  the  dictator,  who  above  all  must  be  practical,  is  not 
intellectual  he  hates  the  intellectuals  who  serve  him,  even 
when  they  do  it  with  the  greatest  care,  loyalty  and  to  the 
advantage  of  his  dictatorship. 

A  practical,  theoretical  dictator  who  knows  his  business 
will  permit  neither  friend  nor  foe,  neither  person  nor  cor- 
poration, to  express  an  opinion  about  his  government  unless 
it  be  to  praise  and  extol  it.  General  Diaz,  in  the  dis- 
tressing period  of  his  mental  decadence — due  to  age  and  to 
the  incessant  weight  of  affairs  of  State — not  only  permitted 
his  enemies  to  attack  his  administration  with  violence  and 
venom,  but  he  authorized,  even  incited,  his  friends,  pref- 
erably the  most  discriminating,  to  pick  flaws  in  his  work, 
to  point  out  the  failures,  lapses,  even  infamies  that  stood  out 
like  putrefying  ulcers,  so  long  as  they  were  laid  at  the  door 
of  the  Cientificos,  who  were  his  subordinates,  and  for  whose 
actions  he  was  responsible,  whatever  the  form  of  govern- 
ment might  be.  General  Diaz's  supreme  delight — a  delight 
that  surpassed  all  human  and  divine  delights — was  to  hear 
the  Cientificos  calumniated,  and  to  realize  that,  as  public 
opinion  gradually  accepted  the  dictum  of  his  friends,  which 
transformed  Senor  Limantour  and  his  colleagues  into  mon- 
sters, it  thundered  back  replies  charged  with  hate  that  shook 
the  nerves  of  even  the  most  complacent. 
Prat,  p.  94. 


A   BOXER   REVOLUTION  119 

General  Diaz  was  obsessed  with  the  idea  that  he  was  a 
necessity,  that  the  nation  trembled  at  the  thought  of  losing 
such  a  man.  It  was  necessary,  therefore,  to  inculcate  in  the 
minds  of  the  Mexican  people  that  except  through  General 
Diaz,  president  in  perpetuity,  there  could  be  no  salvation 
for  the  country,  because  all  things  outside  of  him  were  vile, 
despicable  and  fatal  to  the  public  good. 

This  obsession,  as  a  rule,  characterizes  all  dictators.  But 
when  they  are  sound  of  mind  they  order  the  campaign  of 
defamation  against  their  former  friends  only  a  few  hours 
before  they  kick  them  into  the  street  to  be  jeered  at  by  the 
furious  rabble,  which  applauds  the  justice  of  their  Caesar. 
But  when  such  a  campaign  is  carried  on  for  eight  long  years 
against  the  most  distinguished  men  of  his  administration, 
without  kicking  them  out — on  the  contrary,  decreeing, 
as  General  Diaz  had  decreed  with  regard  to  the 
Cientificos,  that  they  should  succeed  to  the  supreme  power, 
then  the  dictator  sounds  the  last  note  of  the  gamut,  and  the 
people,  however  low  and  servile  they  may  be,  will  rise  up 
to  execrate  and  dethrone  him.  When  a  dictator  has  taken 
the  absurd  step  of  authorizing  and  applauding  a  course 
which  brands  his  subordinates  as  malefactors  responsible  for 
the  vice,  misery  and  degradation  which  have  led  the  people 
to  the  brink  of  an  inevitable  grave,  he  must  be  demented  to 
believe  that  they  can  be  made  to  believe  at  the  same  time 
what  the  fawning  sycopants  of  the  despot  would  have  them 
believe ;  that  is,  that  his  work  is  a  marvel,  that  he  has  pro- 
cured the  happiness  of  the  Mexican  people  and  raised  the 
nation  to  the  height  of  the  most  civilized  nations  of  the 
world.  In  a  strange  poem  written  by  a  Pole,  the  poet  asks 
himself  this  fearful  question:  "What  would  happen  if  God 
were  to  lose  His  mind?"  In  1908  intelligent  Mexicans 
asked  themselves:  "What  will  happen  to  poor  Mexico  now 
that  its  omnipotent  head  has  lost  his  mind?"  And  the 


120      WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT   MEXICO 

answer  was  the  victory  of  another  lunatic,  Francisco  I. 
Madero. 

It  was  General  Diaz  himself  who  brought  about  that 
only  one  trend  of  thought  and  speech  should  prevail — 
that  of  blackening  the  Cientificos.  This  he  obtained  through 
the  columns  of  the  legitimate  press,  the  false  opposition 
press,  the  Government  press,  the  Masonic  lodges,  the  pulpits 
of  the  Mexican  Protestant  ministers,  the  normal  schools,  the 
poor  schools,  city  and  rural,  the  speeches  in  club  houses,  the 
seditious  harangues  in  the  public  squares,  and  the  discourses 
in  the  House  of  Representatives.  The  result  was  that  the 
public,  accepting  all  these  facts  at  their  face  value,  came  to 
the  following  unanswerable  conclusion:  If  the  Cientificos 
are  a  set  of  unscrupulous  thieves,  why  does  General  Diaz 
retain  them  in  the  most  important  posts?  Either  General 
Diaz  is  the  real  leader  of  these  abominable  scoundrels  who 
are  drawing  their  country  into  the  quagmire,  selling  it  piece- 
meal to  foreigners,  especially  Americans,  or  General  Diaz 
is  a  doting  old  Creton,  the  slave  of  the  Cientificos  who  use 
him  as  a  tool  for  national  pillage.  Be  the  case  as  it  may, 
it  is  high  time  the  Mexican  people  take  the  supreme  power 
from  General  Diaz. 

It  was  not  the  much-lauded  Madero  who  prepared  the 
revolution  against  General  Diaz,  but  General  Diaz  him- 
self, with  his  absurd  policy  of  allowing  the  officers  of  his 
administration  to  be  grossly  calumniated  for  a  period  of 
eight  years.  Francisco  I.  Madero  did  not  prepare  any- 
thing. He  simply  stepped  in  audaciously  to  reap  the  fruits 
of'  a  crop  he  had  not  even  planted.  He  found  it  cut  and 
stacked  by  none  other  than  General  Diaz  himself. 

The  Cientificos,  then,  represented  an  insatiable  band  of 
public  thieves.  They  were  not  armed  thieves;  neither  did 
they  deal  in  peculations,  falsifications  or  counterfeiting. 
Their  enemies  exposed  their  methods.  According  to  these 
they  consisted  in  protecting  dishonest  foreign  enterprises, 


A   BOXER   REVOLUTION  121 

the  avowed  purpose  of  which  was  to  plunder  the  Mexican 
people;  these  mighty  enterprises  being  dominated  by  the 
arrogant  American  magnates  and  trusts.  It  is  clear  that  if 
the  Cientificos  were  thieves  who  stole  from  the  Mexican 
people  as  the  agents  of  foreigners — above  all  Americans  and 
American  companies — the  hatred  of  the  Cientificos  naturally 
included  the  American  colony  in  Mexico  and  the  United 
States  Government,  and  prepared  the  way  for  the  moral, 
and  later,  the  material  rupture  with  the  United  States. 


CHARGES    AGAINST   THE   DIAZ    ADMINISTRATION 

I  am  going  to  give  a  list  of  the  charges  which  the  real 
revolutionists,  led  by  General  Bernardo  Reyes,  prepared  for 
the  consideration  of  the  Mexican  people. 

I  should  like,  however,  to  say  that  I  do  not  hold  myself 
responsible  for  the  accuracy  of  these  charges.  For  the  pres- 
ent, I  neither  approve  nor  contest;  I  limit  myself  to  saying 
that  some  are  false;  others  simply  absurd;  others  grossly 
exaggerated;  others  demonstrate  a  wrong  interpretation 
from  lack  of  proper  understanding;  some  are  true. 

Charges  against  the  Diaz  Administration: 

First — Having  sold  half  of  Lower  California  for  a  mere 
pittance  to  Mr.  Louis  Huller,  of  German  extraction  and 
a  naturalized  American  citizen,  who  passed  it  on  to  an 
American  colonizing  enterprise.  El  Nacional,  a  newspaper 
with  a  wide  circulation,  started  the  campaign,  causing  great 
alarm.  It  held  that  Lower  California  would  follow  the 
fate  of  Texas  from  the  moment  that  the  same  methods  of 
turpitude  and  treason  were  employed  against  the  Mexican 
people. 

Second — The  Government  was  accused  of  having  given 
its  consent  to  changes  effected  in  the  Mining  Code,  includ- 
ing the  clause  which  assigns  to  the  owner  of  the  land  the 


122      WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT   MEXICO 

coal  deposits  that  may  be  found  upon  it,  for  no  other  rea- 
son than  that  of  enriching  the  grantees  of  unclaimed  lands 
in  the  state  of  Coahuila,  who  had  acquired  the  Sabina 
lands  for  an  insignificant  sum  with  a  view  to  selling  them 
to  the  American  multi-millionaire,  Huntington. 

Third — Having  sold,  for  next  to  nothing,  3,000,000  hec- 
tares of  excellent  lands  in  the  state  of  Chihuahua  to  two 
favorites  of  the  Mexican  Government,  that  they  might 
resell  to  Mr.  Hearst,  the  celebrated  millionaire,  who  con- 
stantly conspired  against  the  integrity  of  Mexican  territory 
so  as  to  bring  about  armed  intervention. 

Fourth — Granting  concessions  to  foreign  companies  to 
exploit  the  oil  lands,  among  which  companies  the  American 
predominated.  Granting  them  also  exemption  from  export 
duties  on  the  crude  or  refined  product,  thereby  depriving 
the  Mexican  people  of  the  only  means  at  their  command 
to  derive  anything  from  the  exploitation  of  their  great 
national  wealth. 

Fifth — Notwithstanding  the  fact  that  the  most  scandal- 
ous of  all  the  oil  concessions  was  that  granted  by  the  dicta- 
torship to  Lord  Cowdray  (consequently  in  favor  of  English 
capital),  it  was  well  received  by  the  patriots,  until  the  press 
began  agitating  the  matter,  saying  that  Lord  Cowdray  was 
intimately  associated  with  ex-President  Taft's  Administra- 
tion, as  his  brother,  Henry  W.  Taft,  and  George  W.  Wick- 
ersham,  Attorney  General  in  the  Taft  Cabinet,  were  direc- 
tors in  the  company  organized  and  presided  over  by  Lord 
Cowdray. 

Sixth — Having  permitted  the  Guggenheims  to  monopolize 
almost  completely  the  important  metallurgic  industry  upon 
which  the  progress  of  mining  in  the  country  depended.  The 
Guggenheims  controlled  the  smelting  plants  of  Monterey, 
San  Luis  Potosi,  Aguascalientes  and  Velardena  in  Durango, 
and  were  trying  to  get  a  foothold  in  Pachuca  &  Real  Del 
Monte,  thereby  forcing  the  retirement  of  all  the  companies 


A   BOXER   REVOLUTION  123 

that  had  sunk  a  great  amount  of  capital  in  smelters  and 
mining  ventures. 

Seventh — The  granting  to  Colonel  Greene,  an  American 
citizen,  of  enormous  concessions  in  the  copper  lands  of  the 
state  of  Sonora,  upon  which  he  had  established  the  famous 
Cananea  plant,  where  the  four  thousand  employees  were 
treated  like  slaves,  and  with  such  inhumanity  that  there 
was  an  uprising  among  them,  with  the  result  that  armed 
men  from  the  United  States  passed  into  Mexican  territory 
to  protect  the  American  oppressors.  The  national  press 
stigmatized  Governor  Izabel  of  Sonora  as  a  traitor  to  his 
country  for  not  having  ejected  the  insolent  intruders  by 
force  of  arms. 

Eighth — Having  permitted  the  United  States  Ambas- 
sador, Mr.  Thompson,  to  enter  the  business  field  in  Mexico, 
something  that  would  not  have  been  tolerated  in  any  other 
country,  and  having  granted  him  personal  concessions  by 
means  of  which  he  organized  The  United  States  Banking 
Company  and  The  Pan-American  Railroad. 

Ninth — The  permission  given  by  General  Diaz  to  the 
United  States  Ambassador,  Mr.  Powell  Clayton,  to  appear 
every  afternoon  at  the  National  Palace  with  a  list  of  recom- 
mendations for  private  American  affairs,  in  order  that  they 
might  be  approved  immediately  by  the  administrative  and 
judicial  authorities  in  favor  of  the  interested  parties,  even 
when  the  requests  constituted  an  infamous  injustice  to  the 
rights  of  the  Mexican  people. 

Tenth — The  arrangement  by  the  law  office  of  the  noted 
Cientifico,  Senor  Joaquin  Casasus,  of  the  scandalous  con- 
cessions in  the  rubber  lands  granted  to  the  American  multi- 
millionaires, John  Rockefeller  and  Nelson  Aldrich,  which 
caused  the  ruin  of  a  great  number  of  poor  towns  in  the 
state  of  Durango. 

Eleventh — The  verbal  arrangement  between  Senor  Li- 
mantour,  the  leader  of  the  Cientificos,  and  Mr.  Mallet- 


124      WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT   MEXICO 

Prevost,  lawyer  of  the  Tlahualilo  Company,  of  an  agree- 
ment which  ruined  the  river-bank-dwellers,  both  great  and 
small,  of  the  Nazas  River  in  the  cotton  region  of  the 
"Laguna,"  who  were  for  the  most  part  Mexicans;  and, 
moreover,  the  grant  of  several  millions  indemnity  to  the 
Tlahualilo  Company  for  damages  caused  by  it  to  the  river- 
bank-dwellers  of  the  Nazas  through  a  colonization  contract, 
which  had  lapsed  under  the  provision  of  the  law  because 
of  non-fulfillment,  and  which  was  null,  besides,  because  it 
was  unconstitutional,  as  Senor  Limantour  had  acted  without 
the  necessary  faculties,  because  it  did  not  come  within  the 
province  of  the  Treasury  Department  to  settle  matters  of 
this  nature.  The  American  Ambassador,  Mr.  Henry  Lane 
Wilson,  was  the  chief  protector  of  the  Tlahualilo  enter- 
prise to  exploit  Mexico,  and  went  so  far  as  to  make  the 
absurd  statement  that  when  there  was  even  a  single  Ameri- 
can stockholder  in  a  stock  company,  organized  with  stocks 
to  the  bearer,  incorporated  under  Mexican  laws,  even  if  his 
share  were  only  one  cent,  it  gave  the  United  States  Govern- 
ment the  right  to  make  a  claim  against  the  Mexican  Gov- 
ernment under  the  title  of  rights  of  aliens. 

Even  after  the  Secretary  of  Fomento,  Senor  Olegario 
Molina,  disavowed  the  Limantour-Mallet-Prevost  agree- 
ment, the  inhabitants  of  the  "Laguna"  region,  when  they 
became  aware  that  the  Cientificos  protected  the  enterprises 
that  were  working  their  ruin  in  order  to  please  the  United 
States  Ambassador,  assumed  a  revolutionary  attitude,  breath- 
ing hate  against  the  Cientificos  and  all  foreigners  who  sought 
to  steal  their  water  and  lands — a  hatred  that  later  vented  it- 
self in  the  assassination  of  three  hundred  Chinamen  and  sev- 
eral Spaniards  in  Torreon,  with  the  expulsion  of  the  latter 
and  the  confiscation  of  their  property. 

Twelfth — Having  sold  for  an  almost  nominal  sum,  50,- 
000,000  hectares  of  marvellously  fertile  lands  to  twenty- 
eight  favorites,  who  made  poor  bargains  with  the  foreign 


A   BOXER   REVOLUTION  125 

companies  to  whom  they  sold  them,  mostly  Americans,  as 
it  was  the  latter's  ambition  to  buy  up  the  country  by  bits 
and  finally  realize  the  boasted  pacific  conquest. 

Thirteenth — Having  despoiled  the  Yaquis,  brave  and  in- 
domitable as  the  Araucanians,  of  their  magnificent  lands 
to  hand  them  over  to  thieving  bureaucrats,  who  wanted  them 
merely  to  sell  to  American  investors. 

The  spoliation  of  the  Yaquis  brought  upon  Mexico  a 
bloody  struggle  of  twenty  years,  which  has  served  at  the 
same  time  as  a  school  of  depravity  for  the  Federal  judges, 
the  majority  of  whom  dragged  it  out  indefinitely  in  order  to 
benefit  pecuniarily  by  the  frauds. 

Fourteenth — Having  despoiled  various  towns  in  the  state 
of  Mexico  of  their  magnificent  wooded  hills  in  order  to  favor 
an  American  and  Senor  Jose  Sanchez  Ramos,  a  Spaniard, 
proprietors  of  the  paper  factories  of  San  Rafael  and  Anexas. 
Further  favor  was  shown  these  two  favorites  of  the  dictator 
by  allowing  them  to  fix  the  rate  of  tariff  at  both  the  mari- 
time and  frontier  custom  houses  so  as  totally  to  exclude 
paper  for  newspapers,  and,  in  great  part,  all  other  paper 
from  the  national  market. 

Fifteenth — Having  conceived  the  gigantic  operation  that 
gave  the  Mexican  Government  control  of  the  great  railroad 
system,  with  no  purpose  in  view  other  than  that  of  permit- 
ting the  banking  house  of  Scherer-Limantour,  in  combina- 
tion with  American  railroad  magnates,  to  buy  secretly  and 
at  a  low  figure  the  stocks  of  the  Mexican  Central,  the 
National,  the  International,  the  Pan-American  and  other 
railroads,  to  sell  them  later  at  a  great  advance  to  the  Mex- 
ican Government,  thus  consummating  a  piratical  financial 
stroke  against  Mexico  and  the  holders  of  Mexican  railroad 
stocks. 

Sixteenth — Consenting,  after  the  Mexican  Government 
had  obtained  control  of  the  American  branches  and  fused 
all  into  one  great  company  called  Lineas  Nacionales,  to  the 


126      WHOLE  TRUTH   ABOUT   MEXICO 

appointment  by  Senor  Limantour  of  an  American,  Mr. 
Brown,  to  the  important  post  of  General  Manager,  and  to 
the  assignment  of  all  the  important  posts,  especially  those 
drawing  large  salaries,  to  Americans.  The  revolutionary 
press  proclaimed  as  one  of  the  great  principles  of  popular 
restitution  the  "Mexicanization"  of  the  railroads,  which 
meant  expulsion  of  all  non-Mexican  officials  and  employees. 

Seventeenth — The  unceasing  efforts  of  Senor  Limantour, 
finally  crowned  with  success,  to  place  the  oldest  Mexican 
mining  company,  the  Compania  de  Minos  de  Pachuca  y 
Real  del  Monte,  in  the  hands  of  an  American  company 
organized  in  Boston,  and  to  having  followed  the  same  course 
with  the  Santa  Gertrudis  concern.  Although  both  com- 
panies were  obliged  to  keep  the  native  working-men,  they 
could  dismiss  all  the  Mexican  employees,  especially  the 
high-salaried  ones. 

A  storm  of  indignation  broke  loose  in  the  Mexican  mining 
world  against  the  Cientificos  for  having  consented,  for  the 
sake  of  brokerage  fees  and  enormous  gratuities,  to  drain  the 
nation  of  its  capital  by  making  it  over  to  outsiders. 

Eighteenth — The  grant  by  Senor  Limantour  of  a  mo- 
noply  to  the  house  of  Mosler,  Bowen  &  Cook  to  supply  all 
office  furniture  to  Government  offices,  as  well  as  to  Govern- 
ment schools,  and  to  supply  permanently  all  desk  requisites 
for  Government  offices. 

Nineteenth — The  abandonment  by  Senor  Limantour  of 
his  patriotic  resolution  not  to  place  any  of  the  foreign  loans 
with  New  York  banks,  as  he  had  given  these  banks  a  share 
in  the  conversion  of  the  loans  of  1899,  and  had  placed  the 
entire  loan  of  1904,  amounting  to  $40,000,000,  with  the 
New  York  house  of  J.  Pierpont  Morgan. 

Twentieth — The  complete  prostitution  of  the  judicial  sys- 
tem, which  dictated  that  in  case  a  foreigner  was  in  litigation 
with  a  Mexican  the  case  had  to  be  decided  in  favor  of  the 
foreigner,  whether  he  were  right  or  wrong,  without  making 


A   BOXER   REVOLUTION  127 

the  Mexican  pay  the  costs;  but  if  the  foreigner  were  an 
American,  his  Mexican  opponent  was  obliged  to  pay  the 
costs  of  the  suit. 

Twenty-first — Having  been  guilty  of  the  servile  and  trai- 
torous act  of  lending  Magdalena  Bay  to  the  United  States. 

Twenty-second — Having  shown  great  vacillation  about 
fortifying  the  ports  on  the  Tehuantepec  Railroad. 

Twenty-third — Having  rejected,  in  order  not  to  displease 
the  United  States,  the  honorable  propositions  of  eminently 
respectable  Japanese  houses  to  establish  Japanese  colonies  in 
various  parts  of  the  country,  particularly  on  the  Pacific 
Coast  and  in  Lower  California. 

Twenty-fourth — Having  neglected  with  culpable  weak- 
ness to  pursue  the  Chamizal  question  to  the  end,  which 
would  have  put  the  Mexican  people  in  the  possession  of  the 
territory  upon  which  the  city  of  El  Paso  is  built,  stolen 
from  them  by  the  Yankees. 

Twenty-fifth — Having  passed  an  immigration  law  in 
1908  against  the  Japanese  and  Chinese,  dictated  by  the 
United  States  State  Department,  whose  chief  object  was  to 
prevent  the  Chinese  from  getting  into  the  United  States 
across  the  extensive  Mexican  frontier. 

Twenty-sixth — Having  followed  so  degrading  a  policy 
toward  the  United  States  that  any  American,  however  insig- 
nificant or  knavish  he  might  be,  felt  privileged  to  repeat 
with  haughtiness  Saint  Paul's  famous  words  when  sentence 
was  passed  upon  him,  "Civis  romanus  sum." 

La  Voz  del  Pueblo,  a  clandestine  newspaper  which  never- 
theless circulated  freely  in  the  City  of  Mexico  with  the  per- 
mission of  the  chief  of  police,  General  Felix  Diaz,  the  dicta- 
tor's nephew,  said  that  the  Mexican  nation  was  not  the 
creation  of  General  Porfirio  Diaz  and  the  Cientificos,  but 
simply  the  mistress  of  the  United  States. 

When  it  became  known  in  Mexico  in  1910,  that  a  Mex- 
ican named  Ramirez  (I  think  that  was  the  victim's  name) 


ia8      WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT   MEXICO 

had  been  lynched  in  Texas,  the  revolutionary  party  organ- 
ized a  mass  meeting,  and  from  Ramirez  they  passed  to  Diaz 
and  the  Cientificos,  execrating  them  for  the  cowardly,  trai- 
torous policy  by  which  they  had  robbed  their  country  to 
benefit  the  United  States.  In  the  riots  that  followed,  the 
agitators  incited  the  people  to  set  fire  to  the  editorial  office 
of  El  Impartial,  the  Government  organ,  and  if  the  staff  had 
not  made  a  resolute  effort  to  defend  itself,  obliging  the 
police  to  perform  their  duty,  the  fire  would  undoubtedly 
have  consumed  the  building  and  all  the  occupants  would 
have  perished.  This  riot  was  carried  out  with  the  consent 
of  General  Felix  Diaz  who,  goaded  by  his  ambition,  had 
betrayed  his  uncle  and  benefactor. 

Dr.  Lara  Pardo,  one  of  Mexico's  most  distinguished 
writers,  at  present  in  New  York,  in  his  notable  book,  De 
Porfirio  Diaz  a  Francisco  I.  Madero,  has  written:  "Mex- 
ico, says  a  popular  adage,  is  the  foreigner's  mother  and  the 
Mexican's  stepmother."  This  phrase,  which  not  only  became 
a  byword  in  Mexico  but  was  quoted  by  foreign  writers, 
sums  up  in  a  few  words  the  financial,  administrative,  interior 
and  exterior  policy  of  General  Diaz.  And  nothing  can  bet- 
ter explain  why,  while  from  the  outside  decorations  rained 
in  upon  Diaz,  as  well  as  his  sons,  nephews,  relatives  and 
lackeys,  and  he  was  extolled  as  the  greatest  man  Latin- 
America  had  ever  produced,  in  his  own  country,  and  by  his 
own  people,  outside  the  enchanted  circle  that  the  adulation 
of  his  favorites  had  created  around  him,  he  was  cursed,  and 
the  people  waited  with  impatience  the  day  when  death  should 
snatch  from  him  the  supreme  power,  or  some  man,  it  mat- 
tered not  who,  should  rise  up  and  dash  him  from  those 
heights  where  he  seemed  to  be  lost  in  the  clouds.  .  .  . 
Only  the  meanest  kind  of  a  Colonial  government  has  as 
its  only  end  the  illimitable,  reckless,  headlong,  disorganized 
exploitation  of  the  national  resources  to  further  foreign 
interests  at  the  expense,  or  perhaps  total  destruction  of 


A   BOXER    REVOLUTION  129 

national  progress.  To  this  unfortunate  class  belonged  the 
government  of  General  Diaz.  This  political  masterpiece 
never  achieved  anything  but  the  facilitation  of  the  inordinate 
exploitation  of  the  national  resources  for  the  benefit  of  for- 
eigners, and  the  bridling  or  total  extermination  of  national 
advancement.  The  bureaucrats  who  supported  the  admin- 
istration alone  derived  any  benefit  from  it."  * 

Senor  Rogelio  Fernandez  Giiell,  a  serious-minded  man 
and  a  dispassionate  writer,  late  director  of  the  National 
Library  of  the  City  of  Mexico  and  a  partisan  of  Maderism, 
says:  "The  foreign  element,  which  had  profited  so  greatly 
during  the  dictatorship  of  Diaz,  looked  askance  at  Madero's 
reform  tendencies.  Mexico  during  the  last  years  of  the 
Porfirian  Government  had  been  transformed  into  an  enor- 
mous market  to  which  people  of  all  nationalities  flocked  to 
make  their  fortunes,  until  it  became  a  land  of  adventurers, 
without  country,  religion,  or  family,  whose  god  was  gold  and 
who,  like  the  gipsies,  pitched  their  tents  on  the  spot  which 
Mercury  designated  as  propitious.  Briefly,  the  Paseo  de 
la  Reforma  and  the  beautiful  "colonias"  (the  new  residential 
suburbs)  were  filled  with  palaces  where  these  self-made 
magnates  lived  in  oriental  sumptuousness.  The  monopoliza- 
tion of  mines  and  lands  was  so  wanton  that  it  was  no  longer 
possible  to  find  a  piece  of  land  as  big  as  the  palm  of  one's 
hand  that  did  not  belong  to  some  American,  German  or 
Spanish  capitalist.  Everything  was  auctioned  or  sold,  and 
the  sons  of  the  soil  begged  at  the  doors  of  the  palaces  of 
the  foreign  Croesuses."  2 

Senor  Jose  N.  Macias,  an  unqualified  Carrancista,  in  an 
interview  in  1915  with  Senor  Fernandez  Cabrera,  the  editor 
of  El  Heraldo  de  Cuba  and  a  distinguished  writer,  said: 
"It  cannot  be  denied  (the  prosperity  of  Mexico  under  the 

1  Lara  Pardo,  De  Porfirio  Diaz  a  Francisco  I.  Madero,  p.  n. 

2  R.   Fernandez    Giiell,   Episodios   de   la   Revolution   Mexicana, 
p.  186. 


130      WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT    MEXICO 

dictatorship  of  Diaz),  but  it  was  a  delusive  greatness,  the 
greatness  of  foreign  capitalists  who  oppressed  the  country 
in  order  to  multiply  their  resources  with  almost  biblical 
prodigality.  .  .  ."  1 

Senor  Roberto  V.  Pesqueira,  Senor  Carranza's  confidential 
agent  at  Washington,  said  in  an  interview  with  Senor  Fer- 
nandez Cabrera:  "Everyone  is  aware  that  the  republic 
of  Mexico  has  been  the  field  of  exploitation  for  conscience- 
less traders,  who  by  means  of  money  prostituted  the  Gov- 
ernment to  their  own  vile  ends,  obtaining  concessions  and 
sinecures  displeasing  and  irritating  to  the  popular  mind  and 
feeling.  These  foreign  pirates  found  ready  collaborators 
in  the  moneyed  and  conservative  classes,  which  preferred 
the  preservation  and  increase  of  their  millions  to  the  prog- 
ress and  honor  of  the  country  and  the  name  of  the  race."  2 

I  have  given  the  long  list  of  charges  against  the  adminis- 
tration of  General  Diaz,  collated  by  General  Reyes — who 
shielded  himself  behind  the  flattery  with  which  he  attempted 
to  blind  the  dictator — and  by  his  followers.  The  latter 
tried  for  eight  years  by  every  possible  means  to  arouse  the 
popular  class  with  the  idea  of  intimidating  General  Diaz 
and  compelling  him  to  name  General  Reyes  as  his  successor. 
As  nothing  excites  the  popular  mind  as  much  as  the  appeal 
to  patriotism,  and  as  from  the  viewpoint  of  Mexican  history 
the  United  States  appears  as  the  implacable  enemy  of  the 
Mexican  people,  every  agitator  unfurls  the  anti-foreign  ban- 
ner because  the  popular  class,  whether  barbarous  or  semi- 
barbarous,  is  organically  anti-foreign.  In  Mexico  the  suc- 
cess of  any  agitator  is  assured  if  he  turns  the  torrent  of  his 
eloquence  against  the  United  States  as  Mexico's  natural 
enemy,  and  against  the  Spaniards,  because  of  their  cruelty 
toward  the  native  race  and  their  aversion  for  the  "liberties" 
of  the  Mexican  people  in  which  they  do  not  believe. 

1  M.  Fernandez  Cabrera,  Mi  viaje  a  Mexico,  pp.  an,  212. 

2  Idem,  p.  254. 


A   BOXER   REVOLUTION  131 

Neither  for  that  matter  do  any  other  strangers,  or  any  of 
the  reasonable  and   prudent  people  of  the  country. 

It  is  not  easy  to  understand  how  a  Mexican  revolution 
animated  by  the  Boxer  spirit,  particularly  strong  against  the 
United  States,  could  have  enlisted  the  sympathies  of  the 
American  people  and  the  decided  protection  of  its  Govern- 
ment. How  is  this  phenomenon  to  be  explained?  Further 
on  I  shall  give  my  impressions  upon  this  point. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE   MORAL   UPHEAVALS   OF  THE 
REVOLUTION 

THE    QUARTET   OF    DEGENERATES 

MADERO'S  easy  triumph  over  General  Diaz  is  ex- 
plained by  the  action  of  a  quartet  of  degenerates. 
Degenerate  is  used  here  in  the  sense  of  degenera- 
tion ;  the  transformation  of  an  upright  man  into  a  scoundrel, 
or  the  conversion  of  an  extraordinarily  gifted  man  into  an 
imbecile,  or  the  occurrence  of  both  simultaneously. 

Senor  Limantour  was  the  autocratic  chief  of  the  Cien- 
tifico  group,  or,  more  properly  speaking,  of  five  persons  of 
this  group,  because  the  rest,  possessing  enlightened  skep- 
ticism, took  as  much  account  of  the  policy  of  the  Cientificos 
as  they  did  of  the  idle  gossip  of  the  court  of  Alfonso  XIII. 
Senor  Limantour  proved  his  moral  degeneracy  by  his  pa- 
triotic doctrine  of  the  rigid  enforcement  of  court  coercion 
in  order  to  protect  the  interests  of  foreign  companies  and 
prevent  the  depreciation  in  European  markets  of  the  stocks 
of  any  foreign  company  doing  business  in  Mexico. 

He  also  proved  his  degeneracy  by  believing  that  a  man 
of  Senor  Corral's  type,  detested  by  the  people  and  the 
army,  and  without  other  support  than  the  intellectual  power 

132 


THE    MORAL   UPHEAVALS  133 

of  four  persons,  who,  however,  were  resolved  not  to  com- 
promise themselves  too  deeply,  or  to  risk  their  skin  or  their 
millions,  could  serve  as  the  motive  power  to  accomplish  a 
social  and  political  prodigy  unknown  to  history  (carry  the 
election  in  the  face  of  well-known  unpopularity),  and  de- 
clared to  be  impossible  by  experts  and  practical  theorists. 
If  even  six  cells  had  remained  intact  in  Sefior  Limantour's 
brain,  it  would  have  occurred  to  him  to  retire  permanently 
in  1910,  taking  his  friends  with  him. 

General  Reyes,  transformed  into  a  "military  genius"  by 
the  press,  was  the  pretender  to  the  throne — ever  present  in 
dictatorial  Latin-American  countries — who  confides  in  the 
power  that  lies  behind  the  sabre.  He  proved  his  ab- 
solute degeneracy  by  this  extraordinary  fact.  After  plan- 
ning the  political  ruin  of  General  Diaz  for  eight  years,  with 
perversity  as  well  as  cleverness,  when  the  hour  of  assured 
triumph  arrived,  ushered  in  by  the  revolutionary  events 
which  took  place  on  July  26,  1909,  at  Guadalajara,  cour- 
age forsook  the  mighty  warrior  and  he  sought  clemency  at 
the  hands  of  General  Diaz,  who  had  feared  him  for  eight 
years.  These  two  men,  Diaz  and  Reyes,  had  stood  in  mor- 
tal dread  of  each  other  for  a  long  time,  and  had  calmly 
let  the  country  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  Maderistas,  not 
through  fear  of  Madero,  but  through  fear  of  each  other. 

Senor  Ramon  Corral  proved  his  complete  degeneracy  by 
his  incapacity  to  see  that  the  hatred  borne  him  by  the  peo- 
ple and  the  army  made  his  rise  to  power  an  impossibility, 
especially  as  General  Diaz  through  egotism  did  not  try  to 
pave  the  way  in  civil  circles.  The  majority  in  the  Senate, 
in  the  House,  among  the  state  governors,  almost  all  the  mem- 
bers of  the  Supreme  Court  and  all  politicians,  were  his 
enemies.  This  being  the  state  of  things  it  would  have  be- 
hooved Don  Ramon  Corral,  multi-millionaire,  to  take  up 
his  permanent  residence  on  the  Island  of  Corfu  and  devote 
himself  to  the  consoling  study  of  the  Greek  classics. 


134      WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT    MEXICO 

General  Diaz,  of  course,  led  this  group  of  degenerates. 
The  principal  acts  marking  his  degeneration,  and  greatly 
contributing  to  the  ruin  of  Mexico,  were: 

First — Having  given  an  impetus,  for  the  sake  of  villify- 
ing  the  Cientificos,  to  that  war  unto  death  waged  by  the 
lowest  political  elements  in  the  country  against  his  admin- 
istration— undoubtedly  the  least  corrupt  and  most  brilliant, 
from  a  financial  point  of  view,  in  all  Latin-America — and 
earning  for  it  the  condemnation  of  the  people,  who  char- 
acterized it  as  a  cesspool  dangerous  to  the  national  health. 

Second — Having  resolved,  after  carrying  his  campaign  of 
vilification  against  the  Cientificos  to  a  successful  issue,  that 
Don  Ramon  Corral — the  most  detested  politician  in  the  en- 
tire Republic — should  succeed  as  their  representative  to  the 
dictatorship,  with  all  its  machinery  of  oppression,  degrada- 
tion and  injustice. 

Third — Having  failed,  after  outraging  public  opinion 
without  regard  to  class  or  color — because  the  candidacy  of 
Sefior  Corral  was  looked  upon  with  horror  by  all,  from 
the  highest  aristocrat  to  the  meanest  "pelado" — to  organize 
a  great  national  army  that  would  have  been  able  to  drown 
in  blood  the  uprising  that  was  everywhere  foreshadowed. 
Instead  of  following  the  course  prompted  by  reason  (when 
popularity  wanes  power  must  be  held  at  the  point  of  the 
bayonet),  he  persisted  in  maintaining  an  armed  force  one- 
fourth  the  size  of  that  which  would  have  been  required  in 
times  of  peace  to  keep  down  any  popular  uprising  of  the 
guerrilla  type.  The  size  of  the  armed  force,  including  both 
Federal  and  state  troops,  needed  to  preserve  peace,  even 
when  the  Government  could  count  upon  public  support,  was 
well  known  in  Mexico. 

Fourth — Having  refused,  even  after  the  revolution  had 
burst  forth,  to  take  the  proper  means  to  defend  himself,  and 
to  spend  as  much  money  as  was  necessary  to  raise  in  four 


THE    MORAL    UPHEAVALS  135 

months  a  force  of  thirty  or  forty  thousand  Rurales,1  a  feat 
that  could  easily  have  been  accomplished,  and  reenforced 
these  with  thirty  or  forty  thousand  Federal  troops.  It  may 
be  added  that  General  Diaz  had  two  and  one-half  years, 
from  the  middle  of  1908  to  the  close  of  1910,  in  which  to 
prepare  for  the  revolution  that  threatened  him  if  he  car- 
ried out  his  resolution  of  imposing  Sefior  Corral  upon  the 
unwilling  people.  He,  moreover,  had  74,000,000  pesos  sil- 
ver reserve  fund  in  the  Treasury,  and  sufficient  credit  in 
Europe  and  the  United  States  to  have  acquired  two  hun- 
dred, three  hundred,  or  more  millions,  with  which  to  have 
bought  politicians,  to  have  done  away  with  revolutionists 
and  to  have  dominated  the  situation  in  true  despotic  style. 

Mexicans,  as  well  as  foreigners,  have  never  been  able  to 
explain  this  whim  of  General  Diaz's  to  make  Senor 
Corral  Vice-President.  It  was  not  a  whim;  it  was  sheer 
folly,  and  all  real  folly  of  a  pathological  nature  can  be  ex- 
plained on  the  basis  that  he  who  commits  it  is  insane,  the 
degeneration  being  a  more  or  less  serious  state  of  mental 
derangement.  General  Diaz  sought  to  make  Senor  Corral 
Vice-President  simply  because  he  was  the  most  detested 
man  in  the  country,  owing  to  the  fact  that  the  press — 
applauded  and  sustained  by  General  Diaz — had  not  left 
him  a  shred  of  reputation.  Owing  to  the  unbounded 
egotism  that  takes  possession  of  the  mind  of  a  dictator  in 
the  last  stages  of  degeneration,  General  Diaz  thought  it 
absolutely  necessary  that  he  should  continue  in  power  not- 
withstanding the  unpopularity  which  overwhelmed  him,  and 
which  was  tearing  down  the  barricades  of  adulation  that 
were  thrown  up  by  his  partisans  to  shield  him.  Every 
Caesar  who  has  reached  the  pinnacle  of  tyranny  is  pursued 
by  the  shadow  of  his  own  greatness  and  the  spectre  of  the 
popular  hatred.  General  Diaz  thought  that  if  he  appointed 

1  Rurales — mounted    police    who    kept    order    in    the    country 
districts. 


136      WHOLE   TRUTH    ABOUT    MEXICO 

to  the  vice-presidency  an  honorable,  intelligent,  likable  man 
— and  many  such  were  to  be  found  in  Mexico — the  public, 
which  had  believed  in  him  as  the  only  man  capable  of  domi- 
nating the  situation,  would  say:  "  'The  man  who  has  made 
a  nation'  is  no  longer  necessary;  he  is  eighty  years  old;  he 
is  worn  out;  he  ought  to  resign  and  retire  to  private  life." 
General  Diaz  selected  Ramon  Corral  so  that  the  na- 
tion might  exclaim:  "Diaz  a  thousand  times  rather  than 
Corral."  This  is  mental  derangement  pure  and  simple. 

The  unfortunate  Mexican  public  found  itself  in  1908  in 
the  hands  of  four  such  degenerates.  Degeneration  of  this 
sort  can  be  easily  explained.  Autocratic  political  power 
corrupts  and  hardens.  Sefior  Limantour  had  been  the  finan- 
cial autocrat  for  eighteen  years;  General  Reyes  had  domi- 
nated the  states  of  Nuevo  Leon  and  Coahuila  for  twenty- 
three  years;  Senor  Corral  had  been  the  autocrat  of  the 
state  of  Sonora,  exercising  his  power  through  the  firm  of 
Torres,  Corral,  Izabel  &  Company,  for  twenty-six  years, 
and  General  Diaz  had  been  the  autocrat  of  the  nation  for 
thirty  years.  The  sociological  aspect  of  these  men  was  that 
of  extinct  moral  and  deranged  mental  forces.  Mexico  was 
lost! 

The  blame,  however,  is  not  to  be  laid  on  them  alone. 
There  was  another  degenerate,  the  middle  class,  which  had 
been  the  undisputed  owner  of  the  land  since  1867;  the  ab- 
solute political  arbiter  of  the  power  and  destinies  of  the 
Caesars,  and  the  supreme  controller  of  the  army,  which  was 
always  at  its  beck  and  call,  as  our  national  history  proves. 
Why  did  this  class,  which  detested  the  dictatorship,  which 
manifested  contempt  for  it,  which  felt  itself  humiliated  by 
it,  tolerate  the  Diaz  dictatorship  for  thirty-three  years? 
With  this  exception,  in  all  Latin-America  in  the  space  of 
one  hundred  years,  the  longest  dictatorial  regime  on  rec- 
ord is  that  of  Sefior  Jose  Manuel  Rosas  in  the  Argentine, 
which  lasted  twenty-three  years. 


THE    MORAL   UPHEAVALS  137 

The  cause  of  this  deplorable  and  cursed  phenomenon  was 
that  all  the  bureaucratic  vices  had  infiltrated  to  the  middle- 
class  stratum  and  completely  corrupted  it.  The  hour  had 
come  when  a  pigmy  with  the  point  of  its  diminutive  boot 
could  overthrow  the  colossus,  apparently  of  bronze,  which 
rested  majestically  on  its  crumbling  pedestal.  It  was  the 
hour  prepared  by  fate  for  Francisco  I.  Madero. 


THE    IMPLACABLE    AGENTS    OF    DESTRUCTION 

Once  the  die  had  been  cast  by  the  triumphant  election 
of  Senor  Corral,  effected  by  means  of  stuffed  ballot  boxes, 
the  public  realized  that  it  could  still  wait  a  while.  Corral 
could  not  assume  the  power  during  General  Diaz's  life- 
time, and  even  though  the  dictator  was  eighty  years  old  he 
might  easily  live  three,  four  or  even  the  six  years  of  the 
allotted  presidential  term. 

But  this  delay  did  not  suit  General  Reyes.  He  and  Gen- 
eral Diaz  disagreed,  and  he  was  relieved  of  the  portfolio  of 
War  and  sent  back  as  governor  to  Nuevo  Leon.  General 
Diaz  then  made  Limantour  promise  never  to  leave  him  be- 
cause now  more  than  ever  he  needed  the  support  of  all  his 
loyal  friends.  General  Reyes,  who  had  retired  to  Nuevo 
Leon  fuming  with  rage,  was  not  one  to  forget  a  wrong;  he 
also  knew  how  to  wreak  revenge,  not  in  the  measure  of  the 
offense  given,  but  in  the  measure  of  the  hate  to  be  satisfied. 
Another  proof  of  General  Diaz's  degeneracy  was  that  he 
did  not  do  in  1902  what  he  did  in  1909 — send  Reyes  out 
of  the  country,  obliging  him  to  remain  abroad  under  sur- 
veillance, threatened  with  the  fate  of  the  Emperor  Iturbide 
if  he  set  foot  on  Mexican  soil. 

General  Reyes,  knowing  the  wholesome  fear  General  Diaz 
had  for  public  opinion  with  its  power  to  overthrow  dicta- 
tors once  it  reaches  the  fusion  point,  planned  what  was  prac- 


1 38      WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT    MEXICO 

tically  an  assault  on  the  prestige  of  the  dictator  in  the  pub- 
lic mind.  To  set  this  in  motion  he  cleverly  organized  upon 
a  military  footing  a  dangerous  corps  of  agitators. 

Students  may  be  transformed  into  excellent  agitators  and 
very  dangerous  ones,  because  they  enjoy  a  certain  amount 
of  immunity.  It  is  very  seldom  that  a  government  would  be 
willing,  except  under  extreme  provocation,  to  stand  a  group 
of  students  before  a  firing  squad,  or  to  have  them  done 
away  with  secretly.  General  Reyes'  son,  Rodolfo  Reyes, 
sought  and  easily  obtained  the  Chair  of  Constitutional  Law 
at  the  national  School  of  Jurisprudence,  with  a  view  to  con- 
verting it  into  a  hot-bed  of  Reyism.  From  the  moment  the 
scheme  was  launched  the  younger  Reyes  devoted  himself  to 
the  task  of  corrupting  the  youths  of  the  nation  who  were 
subject  to  corruption,  offering  them  public  posts  and  en- 
thusing them  with  this  attractive  program:  "The  country 
for  the  young;  they  are  the  only  force  that  can  save  it, 
because  they  are  noble  and  virtuous!" 

The  youth  of  Latin-America  is  at  once  noisy  and  stupid. 
In  society,  in  conformity  with  the  laws  of  nature,  there  ex- 
ists a  minority  for  the  young  people,  a  minority  for  the 
aged  people  and  a  majority  for  adults.  In  the  state  the 
same  ought  to  hold  good:  a  minority  for  youths  and  old 
men  and  a  majority  for  adults.  Youth,  along  with  its  other 
deficiencies,  is  possessed  of  the  absurd  belief  that  the  world 
ought  to  be  governed  by  college  students  or  professional 
men  still  in  the  infantile  state  of  their  intellectual  devel- 
opment. This  explains  why  the  youth  of  all  Latin-Amer- 
ica will  at  the  polls  declare  a  man  of  twenty-five  acceptable 
for  office;  declares  him  senile  at  thirty  and  a  mummy  at 
forty.  The  proper  governing  age,  according  to  them,  is  be- 
tween fourteen  and  twenty-five.  It  is  needless  to  say  that 
the  success  attained  by  Rodolfo  Reyes  in  his  attempt  to 
enlist  their  enthusiastic  support  for  his  father's  prospective 


THE    MORAL   UPHEAVALS  139 

presidential  campaign  was  immense,  and  therein  the  youth 
showed  their  degeneracy. 

In  Mexico  Free  Masonry  has  never  been  the  respectable 
corporation  that  it  is  in  other  nations.  Since  1824  the  in- 
centive to  join  its  ranks  has  been  to  obtain  Government 
posts.  All  the  high  public  officials  became  Masons  in 
order  to  court  popularity,  and  were  obliged  to  give  the 
preference  to  Masons  in  the  assignment  of  Government  po- 
sitions. They  also  sought  under  cover  of  their  association 
to  transgress  laws,  especially  in  the  line  of  peculations, 
without  incurring  the  corresponding  penalty.  The  Masonic 
program  was:  "The  country  to  satiate  the  gluttony  of  the 
Masons!" 

Descending  from  this  level,  already  quite  low,  Masonry 
went  still  lower  until  it  reached  the  point  of  having  its 
dignitaries  act  as  private  detectives  for  General  Diaz,  do- 
ing all  the  dirty  work  that  is  part  of  a  Caesarian  system. 
Nothing  disparaged  Masonry  in  Mexico  more  than  this. 
In  1885  a  point  was  reached  when  it  was  considered  an  in- 
sult for  a  decent  person  to  be  pointed  out  as  a  Mason.  Gen- 
eral Reyes  determined  to  make  the  most  of  Masonry  to 
attract  the  lower  classes — urban  and  rural — the  radical,  the 
patriotic,  and  the  ultra-patriotic,  all  believers  in  democracy 
and  easily  led  because  their  powers  of  credulity  are  inex- 
haustible. 

Representative  Mexican  society  manifests  toward  foreign 
Protestant  ministers  all  the  consideration  they  deserve;  but 
its  contempt  for  the  Mexican  Protestant  ministers  is  su- 
preme. And  it  is  not  because  they  are  not  Catholics;  rep- 
resentative Mexican  society  has  opened  its  doors  to  liberals 
who  are  not  Catholics.  When  an  educated  person  forsakes 
Catholicism  in  Mexico,  he  drifts  into  deism,  rationalism, 
positivism,  atheism,  or  indifferentism.  Consequently,  when  a 
Mexican  of  the  middle  class  becomes  a  Protestant  minister, 
society  looks  upon  him  as  a  hungry  beggar  unable  to  earn 


140      WHOLE   TRUTH    ABOUT    MEXICO 

his  living  in  a  more  fitting  way  than  by  exploiting  relig- 
ion; or  as  a  knave  who,  before  being  dragged  into  jail  as 
a  pickpocket  or  a  swindler,  tries  this  as  a  last  resort  to  keep 
his  social  standing.  In  representative  Mexican  society,  which 
comprises  a  great  part  of  the  three  principal  social  classes, 
the  wife  of  a  Mexican  Protestant  minister  is  looked  upon  as 
a  sacrilegious  concubine,  and  is  not  received  anywhere.  The 
Mexican  Protestant  ministers,  feeling  themselves  despised 
by  society,  reply  with  hatred  and  vow  revenge.  The  prin- 
cipal form  of  vengeance  is,  first  and  foremost,  to  attack  per- 
sonal property  rights,  or  in  other  words,  to  attack  the  rich, 
or  those  who  on  account  of  their  high  salaries  and  honora- 
ria can  be  considered  rich,  and,  in  general,  all  those  who 
are  not  to  be  found  in  the  lowest  stratum  of  society.  The 
Reyistas  with  their  usual  cunning  won  the  Mexican 
Protestant  ministers,  offering  them  the  friendship  and  pro- 
tection of  General  Reyes. 

The  dictatorship  established  a  Normal  School  to  train 
teachers  for  the  primary,  grammar  and  high  school  grades. 
The  Normal  School  students  were  obliged  to  study  sev- 
eral years  and  obtained  as  a  recompense  miserable  salaries  as 
school  teachers,  and  the  relentless  disdain  of  society,  good 
and  bad.  It  refused  to  give  the  school  teacher,  trained  in 
the  Normal  School,  the  same  social  rank  granted  to  a  law- 
yer, doctor,  engineer,  clergyman  or  broker  of  good  stand- 
ing. The  general  public,  and  in  this  is  comprised  the  best 
society,  including  the  intellectuals,  see  in  the  schoolmaster 
the  comic  and  inoffensive  dominie  of  the  Spanish  one-act 
farce.  And  when  a  schoolmaster  is  introduced  as  a  grad- 
uate of  the  Normal  School,  that  is,  as  a  man  who  has  stud- 
ied several  years  to  obtain  an  honorable  title,  the  following 
remark  is  usually  heard:  "This  poor  man  must  be  exceed- 
ingly stupid  to  have  burned  the  midnight  oil  studying  so 
many  years  to  obtain  a  salary  little  more,  or  even  less,  than 
that  of  a  street-car  conductor." 


THE    MORAL    UPHEAVALS  141 

The  Normal  School  teachers  naturally  resented  this  atti- 
tude and  declared  themselves  the  enemies  of  society;  that  is, 
radical  reformers  of  the  rotten  social  system,  which,  accord- 
ing to  them,  can  only  be  remedied  by  socialism  or  anarchism. 

General  Diaz's  motto,  "No  politics,  all  government," 
robbed  serious  political  newspaper  articles  of  their  impor- 
tance, because  all  being  of  necessity  partisans  of  the  Gov- 
ernment and  busy  paying  court  to  their  master,  no  one 
deigned  to  read  them,  and  the  newspapers  confined  them- 
selves merely  to  news  items.  The  most  influential  persons, 
therefore,  in  the  newspaper  world  were  the  reporters. 
Among  these  were  to  be  found  many  estimable  and  hon- 
orable persons,  but  the  majority  bore  the  reputation  of  be- 
longing to  one  of  the  most  corrupt  of  all  the  fraternities. 
The  reporter,  of  course,  knew  the  public  sentiment  and  felt 
the  scorn  manifested  toward  him  on  account  of  his  generally 
dishonest  and  shameful  conduct.  This  being  the  case,  he 
also  took  his  place  in  the  ranks  of  the  declared  enemies  of 
society,  enlisting  under  the  red  banner  of  socialism  and 
anarchism;  two  culminating  points  where  a  declared  enemy 
of  the  ancient  order  of  things  can  accomplish  only  ruin  and 
destruction. 

The  defenders  of  the  criminal  class  before  popular  juries 
constituted  another  fraternity  to  be  feared.  These  criminal 
advocates  turned  the  courts  into  schools  of  oratory  in  order 
to  increase  their  prestige  in  the  eyes  of  the  dictatorship  and 
in  those  of  the  opposing  attorneys.  The  Latin  advocate  has 
two  favorite  pleas:  First,  momentary  insanity  or  a  heredity 
taint.  The  culprit's  father  or  some  of  his  ancestors  were 
dipsomaniacs,  lunatics,  maniacs,  epileptics,  and  hysterical 
tendencies  manifested  themselves  in  the  female  line;  there- 
fore, according  to  modern  ethical  doctrines,  responsibility 
did  not  exist.  Second,  the  theories  of  Jean  Jacques  Rousseau : 
all  men  are  born  pure,  virtuous,  upright;  it  is  society  which 


142      WHOLE   TRUTH    ABOUT    MEXICO 

oppresses  them,  robs  them,  reduces  them  to  extremest  misery 
and  finally  kills  them  through  neglect  and  disregard  for  their 
suffering.  Consequently,  it  is  not  the  accused  who  is  the  as- 
sassin; it  is  society,  and  it  is  society  which  ought  to  be  sent 
to  the  gallows.  The  accused  ought  to  be  acquitted  at  once, 
and  the  Government  would  be  benefited  by  granting  him 
an  annuity  and  assigning  him  a  retreat  to  which  he  could 
retire  to  study  undisturbed  the  problems  for  social  reform. 

The  lower  bureaucracy  always  detested  the  higher;  and 
in  a  dictatorship  such  as  that  of  General  Diaz,  where  the 
veterans  had  converted  the  Government  offices  into  asylums, 
hospitals  and  even  luxurious  sanatoria,  the  hatred  of  the 
lower  bureaucracies  for  the  higher  had  assumed  unheard-of 
proportions.  The  lower  bureaucracy  was  not  socialistic,  but 
it  wanted  a  new  order  of  things  through  the  intervention  of 
any  national  liberator,  it  mattered  not  who,  so  long  as  the 
lower  bureaucracy  was  actually  relieved  of  the  host  of  de- 
crepits  that  weighed  it  down. 

Feminism  has  penetrated  into  Mexico  as  an  auxiliary  dis- 
turbing force.  It  is  well  known  that  in  Latin  countries  it 
is  only  the  unattractive  women,  despairing  widows,  and 
indigent  spinsters,  when  they  are  susceptible  to  hysterical 
emotions,  who  consecrate  themselves  to  the  social  cause.  A 
woman,  well  or  only  moderately  well  educated,  gifted  with 
great  or  medium  talents,  poor,  unattractive,  old,  or 
merely  soured,  is  a  great  social  peril  if  her  energies  are  not 
diverted  into  religious  and  charitable  channels.  These  re- 
forming women  are  the  generators  of  a  hatred  against  society 
more  dangerous  than  that  fulminated  by  a  Barcelona  anar- 
chist. In  Mexico  there  are  beautiful,  handsome,  delicate 
and  admirable  women,  but  they  are  in  the  minority.  In  gen- 
eral, as  is  the  case  everywhere,  the  unattractive  and  indigent 
predominate,  and  as  the  dictatorship  did  much  toward  edu- 
cating them,  it  armed  an  implacable  and  stupendous  host  of 
adversaries. 


THE    MORAL   UPHEAVALS  143 

The  different  battalions  of  this  terrible  army  of  agitators 
operated,  according  to  the  statutes  of  their  institution,  in  the 
following  manner: 

The  proletarian  student  body,  an  imposing  fraternity  in 
Latin-America,  instead  of  aspiring  to  march  in  the  foreranks 
of  the  army  of  scientific  progress,  believes  that  it  ought  to  be 
the  vanguard  of  the  most  advanced  ideas,  be  they  what  they 
may,  true  or  false.  Consequently,  the  student  body  chooses 
to  affiliate  itself  with  socialists  and  anarchists.  It  believes 
that  it  is  its  duty  to  espouse  the  cause  of  patriotism,  and  as 
patriotism  in  Latin-America  means  a  rabid  anti-foreign  senti- 
ment, it  is  obliged  to  assume  a  Boxer  attitude.  It  holds  that 
it  is  the  duty  of  youth  to  sacrifice  itself  for  its  ideals,  and  fol- 
lowing this  precept  it  is  always  to  be  found  at  the  head  of 
riots  and  in  all  popular  anti-social  demonstrations. 

The  Masons  according  to  the  Mexican  rite  are  bound 
to  propagate  anti-militarism,  anti-Catholicism,  anti-despotism 
and  anti-anarchism. 

The  Mexican  Protestant  ministers,  fulfilling  their  duties 
according  to  the  general  trend  of  ideas,  must  work  against 
Catholicism  and  for  the  spiritual  and  temporal  good  of  the 
people;  and  they  have  discovered  that  the  temporal  good  of 
the  people,  composed  almost  entirely  of  proletarians,  can  only 
be  obtained  by  the  extermination  of  the  landowners. 

The  teachers,  trained  in  the  Normal  Schools,  are  preachers 
of  the  doctrine:' "Society  can  be  regenerated  only  through 
the  school."  This  means  that  they  are  the  regenerators  and 
that  the  reins  of  government  should  be  handed  over  to  them 
so  that  the  measures  outlined  by  the  proletarian  school  for 
the  solution  of  the  Mexican  "social  question" — the  enrich- 
ment of  the  poor  from  the  purse  of  the  rich — may  be  carried 
out. 

The  defenders  of  the  poor  in  the  criminal  courts  are 
bound,  with  the  "social  question"  in  view,  to  defend  them 


144      WHOLE   TRUTH    ABOUT    MEXICO 

even  more  strenuously,  and  the  defense  always  calls  for  the 
spoliation  of  the  rich  in  favor  of  the  poor. 

The  lower  bureaucracy  always  had  a  grievance  because 
of  the  deplorable  state  of  the  public  service,  owing  to  the 
lack  of  change  both  among  the  old  and  the  middle-aged  em- 
ployees who  had  fastened  themselves  like  leeches  upon  the 
best  Government  posts.  If  the  "social  question,"  as  it  is 
presented  by  the  press,  could  be  solved  by  collective  social- 
ism, the  Government  posts  would  undoubtedly  grow  in  im- 
portance by  increasing  the  number  of  employees,  because 
then  even  domestic  positions  would  have  to  be  held  by  Gov- 
ernment employees. 

The  journalistic  class — represented  by  the  reporters — can- 
not have  ideals,  because  they  occupy  the  position  of  chefs, 
obliged  to  prepare  the  dishes  craved  by  the  palate  of  the 
master  of  the  day. 

Mexican  feminists  are  intelligent  and,  therefore,  do  not 
want  the  ballot;  They  know  that  it  is  a  farce  in  the  hands 
of  the  men,  and  that  it  would  only  be  made  a  thousand  times 
worse  if  women  participated.  Mexican  feminism  is  inter- 
ested in  the  "social  question"  because  it  has  outlined  a  more 
serious  program,  the  monopolization  of  all  the  Government 
offices,  basing  their  ambition  on  the  fact  that  men  are  being 
needed  in  Mexico  to  work  the  rich  mines,  till  the  marvellous 
warm  lands,  run  the  splendid  factories  of  our  nascent  in- 
dustries, speed  the  locomotives  of  our  railroads,  man  the 
merchant  marine  to  be  established  and  the  navy  to  be 
built,  and,  above  all,  develop  the  indispensable  aviation 
corps  which  is  the  ever-open,  far-seeing  eye  of  the  army. 
Mexican  feminism  is  interested  in  the  social  question  be- 
cause it  has  far-reaching  reforms  to  propose,  not  yet  given 
to  the  world;  the  time  is  not  yet  ripe. 


THE    MORAL    UPHEAVALS  145 

PRESIDENT    WILSON    AND    THE    NOBILITY    OF    THE    PEOPLE'S 

IDEALS 

Needless  to  say,  the  professed  ideals  of  the  group  of  agi- 
tators are  lies;  the  cloak  that  conceals  their  real  ideals. 

The  first  great  lie  is  their  claim  to  patriotism.  Mexican 
history  has  proved  that  in  our  political  class  there  have  been 
individuals  who  have  shone  for  their  exalted  patriotism,  and 
have  been  admired  for  their  bravery  and  their  disregard  for 
personal  safety  and  their  disinterestedness  as  to  personal 
gain.  But  the  patriotism  of  the  majority  has  been  what  the 
author  of  Notes  on  the  War  Between  Mexico  and  the 
United  States  has  called  it — vociferous  clamor.  The  po- 
litical class  in  general  did  not  display  anything  but  coward- 
ice, egotism,  prostituted  patriotism  and  excellent  dispositions 
to  betray  its  country  once  a  week,  or  once  a  day,  if  necessary 
in  the  war  against  the  United  States  in  April,  1914,  any 
more  than  in  the  war  against  the  Spanish  expedition  of  Bar- 
radas  in  1828;  in  the  Texan  war  against  the  American 
settlers  in  1836;  in  the  war  against  the  French  in  1838;  in 
the  war  against  the  Americans  in  1847,  and  in  the  war 
against  the  French  in  1862  and  the  years  that  followed. 

Foppa,  the  Argentenian  journalist,  perceiving  this  canker 
growing  on  our  social  body,  says:  "And  the  Yankee  .  .  . 
the  Yankee  they  loathe.  Generals  are  still  alive  who  remem- 
ber 1847;  but,  notwithstanding  this  loathing,  they  do  not 
hesitate  to  seek  constantly  the  support,  the  munitions,  the 
funds,  the  friendship  and  the  protection  of  the  Yankees.  .  .  . 
They  are  revolutionists,  they  say ;  they  are  Mexicans,  say  I." 

The  anti-foreign  spirit  has  mortally  wounded  the  hearts 
of  our  agitators  without  ennobling  their  patriotism. 

When  General  Forey  entered  the  capital  in  June,  1862, 
the  bureaucratic  class  flocked  around  him  seeking  positions 
with  the  same  enthusiasm  they  had  manifested  toward  Santa 


146      WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT    MEXICO 

Ana,  Miramon  and  Juarez.  When  Maximilian  established 
himself  as  Emperor  of  Mexico,  Juarez  was  forsaken  and 
remained  almost  alone  at  El  Paso.  In  Mexico  only  a  few 
heroic  men  upheld  him.  The  aristocratic  class  has  shown 
patriotism  only  when  it  has  been  a  question  of  fighting 
Americans.  It  was  the  aristocrats  who  brought  the  French 
to  Mexico,  and  at  the  present  time  they  must  acknowledge, 
whether  they  relish  it  or  not,  that  the  only  thing  they 
crave  is  a  sabre,  national  or  foreign,  which  will  guarantee 
the  security  of  life  and  property. 

Patriotism,  sincere  and  energetic,  tenacious  and  admirable, 
exists  in  the  majority  of  the  common  popular  class,  the 
lower  urban  class,  and  in  a  very  restricted  section  of  the 
political  class.  With  regard  to  the  Indians  it  is  difficult  to 
say,  because  they  received  the  Archduke  Maximilian  with 
extraordinary  enthusiasm  and  with  the  mystic  attitude  they 
might  have  assumed  toward  a  promised  Messiah. 

The  truth  is  that  the  main  ideal  of  the  agitators,  and  of  all 
who  hated  the  Cientificos,  was  vengeance.  The  army  sought 
to  take  vengeance  on  all  civilians,  because  they  wanted  to 
throw  off  the  unsupportable  yoke  of  militarism  which  they 
had  borne  for  one  hundred  years.  It  wished  to  take  ven- 
geance on  the  Cientificos,  because  Limantour  did  not  let  it 
steal  promiscuously,  something  they  had  been  accustomed  to 
do  since  the  birth  of  the  Mexican  nation.  It  wanted,  more- 
over, to  take  vengeance  on  the  Cientificos,  because  they  op- 
posed the  extension  of  militarism,  which  was  eager  to  realize 
the  maxim:  "The  government  of  the  people,  by  the  army  and 
for  the  army." 

The  planters  wanted  to  take  vengeance  on  the  Cientificos, 
because,  with  the  promulgation  of  the  banking  laws  of  1908, 
their  virtual  robbing  of  the  banks  ceased. 

Illegitimate  commerce,  which  was  extensive,  wanted  to 
take  vengeance  on  the  Cientificos,  because  Limentour  had  re- 


THE    MORAL   UPHEAVALS  147 

lentlessly  persecuted  smuggling  and  had  raised  the  morale 
of  the  administration  to  a  standard  that  reduced  this  form  of 
fraud  against  the  state  to  a  tolerable  minimum.  Legitimate 
commerce  wanted  to  take  vengeance  on  the  Cientificos  be- 
cause they  controlled  the  banks,  and  undertook  unfair  and 
ill-advised  operations. 

The  working-men  wanted  to  take  vengeance  on  the  Cien- 
tificos, because  Limantour  had  energetically  opposed  the 
Government's  placing  itself  before  the  world  in  the  light  of 
favoring  the  anti-economic  measure  of  fixing  a  minimum 
wage,  which  threatened  to  be  the  ruin  of  capital. 

The  cotton  weavers  wanted  to  take  vengeance  on  the  Cien- 
tificos, because  they  opposed  the  raising  of  the  protective  rate 
of  tariff  to  a  degree  where  protection  would  be  extortion. 

The  Masons  wanted  to  take  vengeance  on  the  Cientificos, 
because  not  one  of  them  would  ever  join  the  society.  They 
violently  resented  that  the  secret  societies  should  pretend  to 
govern,  and  they  opposed  the  defrauding  of  the  national 
treasury  by  granting  lucrative  positions  and  business  oppor- 
tunities to  the  Masonic  chiefs. 

The  Mexican  Protestant  ministers  wanted  to  take  ven- 
geance on  the  Cientificos,  because  Limantour — not  on  ac- 
count of  their  Protestantism,  but  because  they  bore  the 
reputation  of  being  rascals — had  never  given  them  places  in 
the  public  administrative  offices,  which  they  attempted  to 
secure  in  every  imaginable  way,  so  as  to  be  able  to  steal  in 
whatever  manner  they  could  devise. 

The  school  teachers  wanted  to  take  vengeance  on  the  Cien- 
tificos, because  Limantour  opposed  the  increase  of  their  sal- 
aries, and  the  appropriation  of  five  or  six  million  pesos  an- 
nually for  rural  schools. 

The  newspaper  men  wanted  to  take  vengeance  on  the 
Cientificos,  because  Limantour  would  never  employ  them, 
even  when  they  frequently  offered  their  services  for  a  set 
price,  and  because  he  refused  to  subsidize  newspapers. 


148      WHOLE   TRUTH    ABOUT    MEXICO 

The  feminist  element  wanted  to  take  vengeance  on  Li- 
mantour,  because  he  had  closed  the  door  of  the  Treasury 
Department  to  women. 

These  were  the  main  points,  and  they  worked  with  sav- 
age energy  to  create  the  present  appalling  political  and  social 
upheaval.  The  following  facts  were  patent:  All  Mex- 
icans believed  Mexico  to  be  the  richest  country  in  the  world ; 
the  middle  class  had  suffered  inordinately  from  hunger,  from 
the  time  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence  up  to  the  Diaz 
administration;  the  public  revenues  had  quintupled;  the 
public  receipts  each  year  exceeded  the  disbursements;  the 
reserve  fund  in  the  Treasury  amounted  to  84,00x3,000  pesos  ; 
Mexican  credit  ranked  high  in  European  and  American 
markets.  If  during  the  eighty  years  of  Mexico's  national 
life  the  middle  class,  striving  to  live  entirely  off  the  govern- 
ment and  enrich  itself  thereby,  had  not  been  able  to  steal, 
when  it  became  an  established  fact  that  there  was  much  to 
steal,  the  lust  for  personal  gain  by  means  of  defrauding  the 
bureaucracy  rose  to  fever  heat. 

On  the  other  hand,  to  a  Latin-American  of  the  middle 
class  the  greatest  offense  that  can  be  offered  him — greater 
than  taking  his  wife  from  him,  violating  his  daughter,  or 
disfiguring  his  face  with  sulphuric  acid — is  to  have  one  of 
his  friends  amass  a  fortune.  This  is  not  to  be  endured.  The 
heart  of  the  one  to  whom  this  affront  has  been  offered  is 
consumed  by  a  white-heat  envy,  molten  lead  coursing 
through  his  veins  instead  of  blood. 

If  the  wealth  has  been  acquired  by  means  of  defrauding 
the  public,  which  in  our  decadent  social  system  does  not 
constitute  a  stigma,  then  envy  is  capable  of  transforming  the 
injured  one  from  a  lamb  into  a  lion,  from  a  weakling  into 
an  athlete,  from  an  arrant  coward  into  a  legendary  hero, 
from  a  self-seeking  egotist  into  a  sublime  patriot,  so  long  as 
it  gives  him  an  opportunity  to  take  vengeance  on  his  former 


THE    MORAL   UPHEAVALS  149 

friend,  and  at  the  same  time  to  defraud  his  country  for  his 
own  benefit,  even  to  the  point  of  surpassing  the  rapacity  of 
the  first  offender. 

The  members  of  the  bureaucratic  middle  class  were  in- 
telligent enough  to  be  able  to  judge  to  what  point  the  Cien- 
tificos  were  culpable,  and  to  gauge  the  exact  measure  of 
Profirian  corruption ;  but,  as  they  were  the  victims  of  that  de- 
testable vice  of  envy,  which  blinds  reason  and  corrupts  the 
heart,  they  accepted  as  mathematically  proved  facts  the  asser- 
tions of  the  agitators  to  the  effect  that  the  Cientificos  formed 
a  political  party,  and  that  every  member  of  that  party  was 
receiving  not  less  than  1,000,000  pesos  per  month  or  per 
year,  as  the  case  might  be,  for  his  share  of  the  work  of  the 
association.  The  effect  of  this  belief  was  deplorable.  In  all 
the  homes  of  bureaucrats,  mothers,  aunts,  wives,  sons  and 
daughters,  servants  and  friends  advised  the  head  of  the  house 
to  "do  business"  with  the  Government;  if  he  were  an  em- 
ployee, even  more  so.  "Doing  business"  with  the  govern- 
ment meant,  of  course,  stealing.  It  was  advised  to  take 
everything  on  contract,  from  laying  fifty  thousand  kilometers 
of  railroad  to  removing  the  trash  from  public  offices,  all  to 
be  manipulated  so  as  to  redound  to  the  personal  benefit  of 
the  contractor.  If  it  was  not  possible  to  obtain  contracts, 
the  judges  ought  to  sell  sentences;  the  court  secretaries,  the 
papers  bearing  on  the  case;  the  clerks,  the  public  trust;  the 
chiefs  of  departments,  the  office  furnishings,  the  hospital  sup- 
plies, the  prison  food,  the  arms  and  ammunition  of  arsenals; 
they  should  rob  the  troops  of  their  pay;  impose  fines  upon 
all;  sell  justice  under  every  form;  sell  police  vigilance,  whole- 
sale and  retail;  steal  even  the  inkstands,  pencils,  paper,  type- 
writers and  typewriter  ribbons — in  a  word,  everything  that 
could  be  taken  ought  to  be  taken,  however  low  and  un- 
ethical the  means  employed  to  accomplish  it  might  be. 

It  was  even  noised  about  the  streets,  in  the  cafes,  in  the 
theatres,  in  church  sacristies,  in  public  and  private  gather- 


150      WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT   MEXICO 

ings,  at  the  funeral  obsequies  of  friends.  "Steal  or  you  will 
be  condemned ;  steal  or  you  will  be  an  unworthy  father,  un- 
worthy son,  unworthy  husband,  unworthy  citizen,  unworthy 
friend,  unworthy  man  and  even  an  unworthy  beast,"  was 
the  universal  cry.  The  passion  for  stealing  was  so  ingrained 
that  it  became  the  life  and  soul,  the  warm,  coursing  blood, 
the  master  passion  of  the  nation.  The  revolution,  without 
the  revolutionists  or  the  bureaucratic  class — itself  so  bare- 
facedly revolutionary — being  aware  of  it,  had  already  found 
its  immortal  principles:  "Vengeance  and  pillage." 

Vengeance  was  vowed,  above  all,  against  the  Cientificos, 
because  as  a  whole  they  were,  first  and  foremost,  men  of 
superior  calibre.  The  fool  tolerates,  admires  or  loves  the  su- 
perior man;  the  mediocre  intelligence  detests  him  more  than 
the  insolent  aristocrat,  more  than  the  egotistical,  prostituted 
man  of  wealth,  more  than  its  own  misery,  more  than  all  its 
mortal  enemies  put  together.  The  hatred  of  the  mediocre 
intellectual  class  for  the  superior  men  knew  no  bounds.  It 
was  characterized  by  a  bestial  ferocity  which  can  only  be 
qualified  as  that  which  springs  from  a  mediocre  ambition 
that  has  been  thwarted.  Needless  to  say  the  "social  ques- 
tion" was  the  "personal  question"  so  far  as  the  agitators 
were  concerned.  The  proletarian  "I,"  vicious  and  insig- 
nificant, would  rapidly  be  converted  into  the  multi-million- 
aire "I,"  transformed  by  adulation  into  a  respectable  per- 
sonage. Such  was  the  problem  that  the  educated,  intelligent 
contingent  had  to  solve  at  the  cost  of  the  civilization  and 
life  of  the  Mexican  people. 

Unfortunately  for  Mexico,  and,  perhaps,  for  the  United 
States,  out  of  the  1,600,000,000  beings  who  inhabit  the 
globe,  there  was  one,  President  Wilson,  capable  of  believing 
in  the  "most  noble  ideals  of  the  Mexican  people,"  which  in 
reality  were  nothing  more  than  the  infamous  ideals  of  a 
band  of  kid-gloved,  frock-coated  thieves. 
President  Wilson  was  touched  by  these  "most  noble  ideals," 


THE    MORAL   UPHEAVALS  151 

and,  forgetting  that  he  had  been  placed  in  his  exalted  posi- 
tion to  procure,  within  the  limits  of  his  legitimate  field  of 
action,  the  welfare  and  prosperity  of  the  people  of  the  United 
States,  turned  away  from  his  duty  to  put  himself  at  the  head 
of  the  Mexican  revolution  in  company  of  persons  who  can 
in  no  wise  add  to  his  prestige. 


CHAPTER  III 
MADERISM 

THE   MORE   THAN    SHAMEFUL   FALL   OF   THE   COLOSSUS 

IT  may  be  urged  that  in  all  civilized  countries  there  exist 
agitators  of  the  anti-social  type  as  capable  of  harm  and 
as  much  to  be  feared  as  those  who  operate  in  Mexico. 
It  is  true,  but  the  Mexican  people  are  not  yet  civilized,  espe- 
cially from  the  middle  class  downward.  Civilized  nations 
possess  sufficient  popular,  traditional,  intellectual  and  moral 
conservative  elements  to  allow  them  to  grant  liberties  to  the 
classes  that  aspire  to  reform  the  social  order.  Even  so, 
nations  as  civilized  as  France  have  found  themselves  in  dan- 
ger of  being  submerged.  Dictatorships  are  necessary  in 
countries  where,  as  is  the  case  in  Mexico,  there  is  no  other 
traditional,  conservative  element  but  the  Church,  with  still  a 
considerable  remnant  of  influence;  the  army,  which  once 
corrupted  has  no  influence  for  good,  and  the  immobility  of 
the  rural  masses  because  of  their  illiteracy,  which  prevents 
agitators  from  putting  themselves  into  contact  with  them. 
Mexico's  misfortune  was  that  it  should  have  occurred  to 
General  Diaz  during  the  years  of  his  degeneracy  to  con- 
trive to  destroy  all  the  powerful  repressive  and  governing 
elements  that  a  dictatorship  should  possess,  and  to  hand 
over  his  person,  his  government  and  society  to  the  infernal 
power  of  agitators  to  whom  more  liberties  were  allowed 
than  in  the  most  civilized  free  countries. 

The   famous   Creelman   conference   took   place   in    1907, 

152 


MADERISM  153 

and  after  that — in  fact,  because  of  it — General  Diaz  gave 
permission  for  everything  to  be  freely  and  indiscriminately 
attacked:  Social  order,  natural  order,  divine  order,  every- 
thing which  up  to  then  had  been  respectable  and  respected, 
except  his  person,  which  was  no  longer  respected,  and  which 
could  lay  no  claim  to  being  respected.  Everything  could  be 
proclaimed  and  upheld:  Jacobinism,  scoundrelism,  social- 
ism, anarchism,  criminalism,  bestialism,  so  long  as  "reelec- 
tionism"  were  admitted  and  tolerated.  General  Diaz  never 
took  into  account  that  the  three  years'  preparatory  campaign 
against  the  peace  and  civilization  of  Mexico,  1908  to  1910, 
had  pulverized  the  foundations  of  the  dictatorship. 

Opposite  General  Diaz  stood  that  other  abnormal  degen- 
erate, General  Reyes,  the  leader  of  a  crusade  aimed  at  the 
very  heart  of  his  country.  As  a  society  or  as  a  nation  it 
was  doomed  to  perish,  since  it  was  at  the  mercy  of  such  a 
mad,  insane  policy.  Reyes  did  not  consider  that  he  was 
undermining  the  foundations  of  the  building  he  wished  to 
inhabit ;  neither  did  his  son,  the  leader  of  the  agitation,  stop 
to  consider  that  it  was  his  father's  grave  he  was  digging, 
either  as  a  man  or  as  a  politician,  but  in  any  event  the  grave 
of  the  Mexican  people. 

The  army  could  have  saved  the  situation  had  it  not  also 
utterly  degenerated.  This  was  proved  by  its  failure  to  over- 
throw General  Diaz  in  1902,  as  was  its  manifest  duty.  In 
Latin-America  the  army  has  a  double  salutary  office:  First, 
to  end  quickly  by  means  of  force  anarchistic  tendencies  that 
are  destroying  the  country.  Second,  to  put  an  end  to  dicta- 
torships which,  once  degenerated,  ought  to  be  inexorably  de- 
stroyed in  order  to  prevent  two  evils:  those  proceeding  from 
a  decadent  dictatorship,  and  the  inevitable  social  anarchy 
that  would  result  if  the  army  did  not  at  the  proper  moment 
overthrow  the  dictator,  thus  making  room  for  another  who 
would  assume  the  power.  He  would  always  be  better  than 
the  overthrown  dictator,  because  nothing  can  be  more  harm- 


154      WHOLE   TRUTH    ABOUT    MEXICO 

ful  to  a  nation  than  to  be  at  the  mercy  of  a  man  in  the  last 
stages  of  cerebral  derangement. 

General  Reyes  proved  his  degeneracy  in  July,  1909. 
After  the  people  of  Guadalajara,  including  all  classes  of 
society,  had  risen  against  the  dictatorship,  the  nation 
acclaimed  him  as  its  savior;  the  younger  element  of  the 
army  bowed  to  him;  the  conservatives  accepted  him  as  the 
"man  of  iron,"  and  even  the  partisans  of  democracy  upheld 
him,  as  the  phrase  of  the  demagogue  Camilo  Arriaga  attests: 
"Any  one  but  Diaz,  even  Reyes."  Nevertheless,  the  much- 
lauded  governor  of  Nuevo  Leon  failed  to  put  himself  at  the 
head  of  the  movement  which  was  backed  by  all  society,  their 
support  originating  in  great  part  in  the  eight  years'  Reyista 
campaign  against  General  Diaz.  At  this  crucial  moment 
Reyes  abandoned  his  post,  bowed  to  the  orders  of  the  dic- 
tator, submitted  to  being  sent  into  exile,  and  to  the  be- 
trayal of  his  friends.  The  revolution,  which  already  had 
the  moral  and  physical  support  of  the  nation,  was  left  with- 
out a  leader,  cast  out  into  the  open,  to  be  marshalled  into 
order  and  led  into  action  by  the  first  one  who  happened  to 
come  along.  It  mattered  not  who  this  might  be,  provided 
he  possessed  what  the  army  lacked,  courage  and  audacity. 
It  was  Francisco  Madero  who  casually  passed  by  and  pos- 
sessed himself  of  the  revolution,  or  more  properly  speaking, 
the  revolution  possessed  itself  of  him,  for  never  at  the  time, 
or  afterwards,  did  Madero  comprehend  the  revolution. 

The  revolution  began  in  Chihuahua  and  was  organized 
by  Senor  Abraham  Gonzalez,  who  in  my  presence  concurred 
in  what  was  generally  known  in  Mexico — that  he  initiated 
the  revolution,  not  out  of  hatred  for  Diaz,  but  through 
hatred  of  the  Terrazas  family,  represented  by  the  govern- 
ment of  Don  Enrique  Creel.  Dr.  Campa,  in  his  work  on 
the  revolution  in  Chihuahua,  has  proved  what  every  resi- 
dent of  Chihuahua  says,  that  Pascual  Orozco  threw  himself 
into  the  revolution  because  of  hatred  of  Governor  Creel, 


MADERISM  155 

who  was  the  protector  of  the  Chavez  family.  It  was  one 
of  the  principal  families  of  the  town  of  Santa  Isabel,  and 
was  hated  by  Orozco.  The  brilliant  Chihuahua  leader, 
Salido,  took  up  arms  because  of  hatred  of  the  Terrazas 
family,  who  were  the  protectors  of  Zea,  the  mayor  of 
Cuidad  Guerrero,  whom  Salido  cordially  hated.  Jose  M. 
Maytorena  organized  the  revolution  in  Sonora  because  of 
personal  hatred  of  Don  Ramon  Corral.  In  Sinaloa  the  revo- 
lution headed  by  Juan  Banderas  was  inspired  by  hatred  of 
the  Redo  family.  In  the  "Laguna"  region  in  the  states  of 
Durango  and  Caohuila,  the  leaders  who  fomented  the  revo- 
lution did  so  out  of  hatred  of  the  Carzagalanista  circle, 
which  had  obtained  control  there.  In  Morelos,  Zapata  had 
taken  up  arms  because  of  personal  hatred  of  the  mayor  of 
Yautepec,  who  had  forcibly  obliged  him  to  serve  in  the 
Federal  army.  With  the  exception  of  Madero,  we  find 
nothing  patriotic,  nothing  civilized,  nothing  elevated  in  the 
motives  that  actuated  the  revolutionary  leaders  of  1910,  who 
were  not  bandits.  Everything  was  hatred  because  of  injured 
interests  or  wounded  self  love,  or  offenses  of  a  personal 
nature. 

I  have  pointed  out  that  notwithstanding  the  fact  that 
General  Diaz  possessed  formidable  means  by  which  he  could 
have  smothered  the  revolution  so  openly  flaunted  in  his  face 
in  1908,  he  offered  but  feeble  resistance  to  Madero,  leading 
to  his  own  fall  and  to  what  has  proved  to  be  the  destruction 
of  civilization  in  Mexico. 


WHO    TRIUMPHED    IN    THE    MADERO    REVOLUTION    OF 

After  the  convention  of  Ciudad  Juarez,  which  put  the 
power  indirectly  into  the  hands  of  Madero,  the  Maderista 
press  announced  that  the  people  had  triumphed.  This  was 
not  a  fact.  A  people  can  only  be  said  to  triumph  when 
it  is  capable  of  self-government;  otherwise  the  one  who  tri- 


156      WHOLE   TRUTH    ABOUT    MEXICO 

umphs  is  its  tacit  or  actual  representative.  In  Latin-America 
this,  without  exception,  is  the  disloyal  leader,  the  tyrant  who 
calmly  says:  "Step  down,  that  I  may  step  up."  The  only 
benefit  derived  by  a  servile  people  from  a  revolution  is  a 
change  of  despots,  never  a  new  form  of  government. 

In  1911  the  material  victory  had  been  won  by  the  leaders 
of  the  popular  or  sub-popular  class,  some  of  them  reputable 
persons,  others  bandits.  Among  these  may  be  mentioned 
Pascual  Orozco,  Villa,  Urbina,  Rodriguez,  Amado  Macias, 
Triana,  Banderas,  Iturbe,  Calles,  Alvarado,  Cabral,  Candido 
Navarro,  the  Zapatas,  Salgado,  Figueroa,  Zamudio,  and 
many  others  of  lesser  importance.  A  Venezuelan  President, 
speaking  of  our  burlesque  democracies,  said  that  in  dicta- 
torial Latin-America  the  only  serious  feature  about  them  is 
that  by  right  of  might  they  belong  to  the  strong. 

In  Mexico,  so  far  as  the  revolution  is  concerned,  this  bit- 
ter truth  has  been  realized.  The  winner  of  the  victory  is 
the  master  of  the  situation,  and  Mexico  had  fallen  from  the 
feeble,  tremulous  grasp  of  General  Diaz  under  the  hoofs  of 
the  horses  of  ranchmen,  cowboys  and  bandits  in  the  north,  and 
in  the  south  into  the  clutches  of  a  barbarous  or  semi-savage 
horde.  Fortunately  for  the  Mexican  public  the  revolutionary 
press,  with  its  illimitable  power  of  suggestion  over  the  minds 
of  a  credulous  people,  aiming  to  obliterate  General  Diaz's 
formidable  personality,  managed  to  pass  Madero  off  as  the 
saving  hero,  transforming  him  into  a  veritable  idol  in  the 
eyes  of  the  people.  This  crusade  of  fanaticism  was  carried 
to  such  a  point  that  it  was  impossible  to  create  among  the 
masses,  rural  or  urban,  an  enthusiasm  for  any  deserving 
revolutionary  leader  equal  to  that  felt  for  the  defied  figure 
of  Madero.  He  was  the  only  jEon  of  the  gnostics  of  Mex- 
ican democracy.  The  work  of  the  press  was  bound  to  be 
ephemeral.  Every  revolutionary  press  that  has  forged  an 
idol  is  fated  to  be  the  one  to  demolish  it,  and  the  counter- 
feited portrait  of  Madero  as  a  Herculean  reformer  was 


MADERISM  157 

destined  to  be  shortly  annihilated  by  the  same  press  that 
had  created  him  the  superior  of  all  other  Mexican  public 
men. 

The  triumph  of  Madero  revealed  the  nation's  misleading 
position.  The  Federal  army,  although  it  fought  with  brav- 
ery and  discipline  in  1910  and  1911,  was  routed  and  hu- 
miliated. Notwithstanding  its  reduced  numbers,  it  might 
have  conquered  Madero  and  put  an  end  to  the  revolution  in 
Chihuahua.  Its  failure  to  do  so  proves  its  inefficiency,  and 
in  this  light  its  failure  must  be  attributed  to  its  advanced 
state  of  degeneration. 

The  second  fact  is  more  significant  and  more  deplorable. 
In  our  famous  War  of  Reform,  bloody  and  destructive  in 
the  extreme,  the  liberal  leaders  were  almost  all  professional 
men  of  the  middle  class.  Their  only  contribution  to  the 
existing  national  army  was  raw  recruits  and  mobs.  They 
suffered  terrible  defeats  with  fortitude,  and  carried  on  the 
struggle  heroically  until  they  were  able  to  organize  armies 
and  to  dominate  reactionaries,  justly  acquiring  fame  for 
their  bravery,  intrepidity,  constancy  and  resistance  in  an 
utterly  exhausting  campaign  of  three  years,  fought  in  the 
midst  of  want  and  misery.  Their  names  deserve  to  be  men- 
tioned: Generalisimo  Santos  Degollado;  Generales  Ignacio 
de  la  Llave,  Pedro  Ogazon,  Miguel  Blanco,  Esteban  Coro- 
nado,  Juan  Zuazua,  Maunel  Doblado  and  Generalisimo  J. 
Gonzalez  Ortega,  who  by  a  series  of  brilliant  victories  won 
the  cause  for  the  liberal  party.  To  the  names  of  these  pa- 
triots, all  of  whom  were  lawyers,  should  be  added  those 
of  Manuel  Gutierrez  Zamora,  a  merchant,  and  Santiago 
Vidaurri,  a  Government  bureaucrat.  Such  were  the  great 
fighters  of  our  immortal  three  years'  war. 

In  the  Madero  revolution  we  do  not  find  a  single  lawyer 
converted  into  a  hero  by  military  feats,  or  as  the  leader  of 
any  important  or  unimportant  detachment.  One  or  two 
young  attorneys  were  to  be  found  attached  to  the  person  of 


158      WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT   MEXICO 

Madero,  carefully  hugging  the  rear,  and  the  only  profes- 
sionals engaged  in  the  struggle,  Hay,  Gonzalez  Garza  and 
Fuentes  D.,  never  held  important  commands.  The  lawyer, 
Jose  Maytorena,  and  the  engineer,  Manuel  Sonilla,  watched 
the  bull-fight  from  behind  the  fence  in  the  capacity  of  civil- 
ians. From  a  sociological  point  of  view  this  proves  that  the 
middle  class,  with  a  few  exceptions,  was  lost  to  shame  or 
bravery — or  to  both — and,  consequently,  was  no  longer  en- 
titled to  the  right  to  govern.  The  governing  class  should 
possess  strength  enough  to  be  the  fighting  class,  or  to  trans- 
form itself  into  it  should  occasion  demand.  A  people  is 
truly  sovereign  only  when  it  knows  how  to  discharge  mili- 
tary duties,  taking  up  arms  for  the  defense  of  its  legitimate 
rights  according  to  ethical  principles,  which  are  nothing  more 
than  the  principles  of  true  militarism.  The  Madero  revolu- 
tion revealed  the  deplorable  fact  that  the  middle  class  had 
lost  control  of  the  country,  and  that  it  must  henceforth 
belong  to  those  who  possessed  the  greatest  military  strength. 
If  Mexico  fell  into  the  hands  of  two  hundred  thousand 
bandits,  it  was  not  because  of  the  decrees  of  moral  law,  the 
law  of  civilization  or  constitutional  law,  but  of  the  natural 
law,  which,  all  theories  of  jurists  to  the  contrary  notwith- 
standing, gives  dominion  to  the  strong  over  the  weak.  Since 
the  triumph  of  the  Madero  revolution  the  educated  middle- 
class  man,  honest  or  dishonest,  is  destined  to  live  as  a 
courtier,  a  bawd,  a  lackey,  or  as  the  private  secretary  of  the 
leading  bandit  chief  of  the  popular  or  sub-popular  class,  who 
cannot  feel  anything  but  well-merited  contempt  for  them. 
No  one  noticed  the  change  wrought  by  the  Madero  revo- 
lution. The  real  revolutionists  who  had  spent  eight  years 
in  working  out  their  plans  and  preparing  their  campaign, 
and  those  who  had  recently  joined  the  ranks,  expected  that 
Madero  would  endorse  their  great  principles,  "vengeance 
and  pillage" — vengeance  against  the  Cientificos,  even  to 
picking  their  bones  with  the  greedy  rapacity  of  vultures. 


MADERISM  159 


MADERO    THE    COUNTER-REVOLUTIONIST 

When  Madero  triumphed,  the  student  body  expected  that 
the  Government  would  be  handed  over  to  them  in  virtue 
of  their  prerogative  as  the  enlightened  youth  of  the  nation. 
'Madero,  however,  resolved  to  govern  with  the  help  of  use- 
ful, patriotic  persons,  whether  young,  middle-aged  or  old. 

The  Mexican  Masons  approached  Madero,  but  he  drew 
away  with  repugnance.  He  was  a  spiritist,  although  his 
family  was  sincerely  Catholic.  Among  the  male  members 
of  the  family  were  to  be  found  liberals  of  the  advanced 
type,  who  professed  the  most  profound  contempt  for  the 
Masonic  fraternity,  whose  history  in  Mexico  has  been  de- 
grading and  shameful. 

Neither  did  the  Mexican  Protestant  ministers  meet  with 
a  warm  reception.  Madero  advised  them,  since  the  law  of 
the  land  forbade  clergymen  of  any  denomination  whatsoever 
to  enter  the  political  field,  to  devote  themselves  to  their 
spiritual  functions;  and  told  them  that,  if  in  order  to  seek 
political  offices  they  should  cast  aside  their  clerical  garb  and 
office,  they  would  declare  themselves  unprincipled  rascals 
whose  only  object  could  be  exploitation  for  personal  benefit. 
The  criminal  lawyers  noted  from  the  first  that  Madero 
received  them  coldly,  and  in  a  toast  "The  Apostle,"  as 
Madero  was  called,  was  heard  to  say  that  these  very  advo- 
cates were  society's  most  dangerous  enemies.  For  the  femin- 
ists, seekers  of  Government  employment,  Madero  had  no  use. 
He  never  hesitated  to  proclaim  his  dislike  for  intriguing  po- 
litical women.  In  an  absolute  and  final  manner  Madero  an- 
nounced that  he  would  not  subsidize  newspapers  to  eulogize 
him,  neither  would  he  buy  up  newspapers.  The  Nueva  Era 
was  established  with  private  capital.  The  state  bureau- 
cracies, which  at  the  last  moment  betrayed  the  dictator  in 
order  to  pounce  upon  the  Federal  posts,  were  slighted  by 


160      WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT   MEXICO 

Madero,  who  expressed  his  determination  to  keep  in  office 
all  the  honest  and  capable  employees  of  his  predecessor's 
administration.  The  members  of  the  lower  bureaucracy, 
which  had  aspired  to  cast  out  the  higher,  were  advised  to 
maintain  an  attitude  of  circumspection  and  respect  toward 
their  superiors  under  pain  of  dismissal. 

Great  was  the  disappointment  everywhere  with  regard 
to  the  vengeance  every  one  had  expected  to  wreak  on  the 
Cientificos.  It  appeared  that  Senor  Limantour,  before  being 
made  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  had  been  attorney  for  the 
Madero  family  when  "the  Apostle's"  grandfather,  Senor 
Evaristo  Madero,  a  highly  gifted  man  who  amassed  a  great 
fortune,  had  been  its  head.  The  Maderos  thought  very, 
highly  of  Senor  Limantour,  understood  the  worth  of  his 
financial  policy  and  moralistic  campaign,  and  Senor  Ernesto 
QVIadero,  who  succeeded  Limantour  in  the  Treasury  Depart- 
ment, determined  to  preserve  the  personnel  of  the  department 
and  the  financial  and  administrative  methods  of  his  prede- 
cessor. The  Maderos  had  always  looked  with  disfavor  upon 
the  calumnies  that  had  been  circulated  by  the  enemies  of 
the  Cientificos  without,  however,  losing  sight  of  the  fact 
that  there  were  two  or  three  who  had  a  good  deal  to  answer 
for.  The  new  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  judged  rightly 
that  it  was  not  possible  to  govern  without  the  decided  sup- 
port of  the  national  and  foreign  capitalist,  especially  in  a 
country  that  urgently  needed  foreign  capital  to  develop  it. 
The  demand  of  the  genuine  revolutionist  was  that  Madero 
should  govern  with  the  help  of  the  mob  and  the  kid-gloved 
rascals.  But  all  the  working  elements  of  the  revolution 
soon  felt  that  in  Maderism,  as  it  had  unfolded  itself,  it 
would  be  impossible  for  them  to  prosper  or  even  live. 
Madero  was  noble,  generous,  civilized,  worthy  to  hold  the 
place  he  occupied  because  he  repulsed  with  horror  all  rancor, 
all  recourse  to  vengeance  or  rascality  as  helps  to  government. 
It  is  not  true  that  the  Cientificos  started  the  revolt  against 


MADERISM  161 

Madero  with  the  purpose  of  overthrowing  him.  On  the  con- 
trary, they  were  always  grateful  to  him  and  never  conspired 
against  his  government.  I  speak  of  the  true  Cientificos, 
who  dissolved  in  1911,  each  one  at  liberty  to  do  what  he 
might  think  best.  The  element  that  overthrew  Madero 
was  the  military,  led  by  General  Reyes  and  General  Felix 
Diaz,  both  of  whom  hated  the  Cientificos.  In  the  event  of 
their  triumph  the  Cientificos  could  have  expected  nothing 
but  the  most  incessant  and  implacable  vengeance,  ending  in 
their  annihilation.  It  is  stupidity  or  absolute  want  of  good 
faith  to  believe  that  the  Cientificos  could  have  supported  the 
insurrection  against  Madero  in  order  to  raise  Reyes  to 
power. 

From  the  first  days  of  his  great  victories  and  before 
assuming  the  presidency,  Madero  had  tranquilized  society, 
alarmed  by  the  triumph  of  the  rabble,  assuring  them  that 
they  had  nothing  to  fear,  as  he  was  determined  to  respect 
all  the  personal  guarantees  granted  by  the  Federal  Consti- 
tution of  1857,  tne  reestablishment  of  which  he  had  pro- 
claimed. The  socialists,  anarchists  and  reformers,  who  based 
their  projects  upon  modifications  or  utter  destruction  of  the 
social  regime,  which  rests  upon  the  inviolability  of  private 
property,  were  white  with  rage  against  Madero  and  de- 
nounced him  as  a  traitor  to  the  principles  of  the  revolution. 

Public  stealing,  the  other  revolutionary  ideal,  was  not 
countenanced  by  Madero.  The  truth  must  be  told.  Ma- 
dero was  an  upright  President  a:cd  did  what  he  could,  within 
the  limited  range  of  his  political  and  administrative  knowl- 
edge, to  abolish  public  stealing. 

Fifteen  days  after  his  triumph  Madero  was  already  dis- 
liked or  hated  in  all  revolutionary  circles,  proving  that  the 
actual  ideals  of  the  revolutionists  were  contrary  to  the  prin- 
ciples they  professed:  honesty,  kindness  and  justice. 


1 62      WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT   MEXICO 


THE    ONLY   ROAD    OPEN    TO    MADERO 

Before  assuming  the  reins  of  government  in  October,  1911, 
Senor  Madero  asked  my  opinion  of  his  administrative  pro- 
gram. I  shall  transcribe  faithfully  my  reply,  vouching  for 
the  absolute  truthfulness  of  my  words. 

"Senor  Madero,  you  are  not,  nor  can  you  ever  be,  the 
spirit  of  the  revolution  because,  judging  by  your  noble  con- 
duct and  your  civilized  principles,  you  are  in  reality  the 
spirit  of  the  counter-revolution.  The  political  problem  is  as 
follows:  You  cannot  possibly  govern  with  the  revolutionary 
element,  composed  of  rough  but  honest  ranchmen,  profes- 
sional bandits  and  demagogic  agitators,  leaders  of  the  re- 
stricted civil  revolutionary  circle.  You  cannot  fall  back 
upon  a  dictatorship,  because  it  takes  time  above  all  to  es- 
tablish one;  neither  would  the  people  who  have  supported 
you  so  nobly  because  they  loathed  the  dictatorship  of  Gen- 
eral Diaz,  ever  permit  you  to  fasten  upon  them  what  they 
have  striven  with  all  their  strength  to  cast  off.  In  Latin- 
America  a  dictatorship  cannot  be  openly  and  brazenly  estab- 
lished. All  dictators  have  attained  their  object  by  means 
of  patience,  dissimulation,  perfidy,  political  assassination  and 
corruption — means  you  are  incapable  of  adopting,  for  which 
I  congratulate  you.  But  even  if  you  possessed  the  qualities 
of  a  born  dictator,  you  would  lack  time,  for  remember  that 
it  took  General  Diaz  eight  years,  and  not  a  month,  to  es- 
tablish his  dictatorship,  the  first  years  of  his  government 
bearing  no  semblance  to  a  dictatorship. 

"I  do  not  believe  that  you  can  establish  a  democratic  gov- 
ernment, because  the  chief  element  is  lacking,  a  democratic 
public;  but  I  do  believe  that  you  could  essay  the  establish- 
ment of  a  government  along  parliamentary  lines,  such  as 
that  of  Chile,  Argentine  or  Brazil.  This  attempt  is  impos- 
sible without  taking  the  Catholics  into  account  to  form  a 
Catholic  party,  deficient,  but  still  a  party. 


MADERISM  163 

"It  is  absurd  for  Mexican  liberals,  so  enamored  of  the 
parliamentary  form,  to  talk  of  launching  it  with  only  one 
political  party.  This  talk  of  one  political  party  is  an  ab- 
surdity. Every  political  party  that  aims  at  destroying  its 
opponent  in  order  to  be  supreme,  degenerates,  becomes  cor- 
rupt, divides  into  personal  factions  and  presents  a  truly 
repellant  aspect,  as  the  liberal  party  has  done  and  is  doing. 
Without  a  party  opposed  to  the  liberal  party,  to  act  as  a 
balance,  all  attempts  to  float  a  parliamentary  form  of  gov- 
ernment are  crass  stupidity. 

"The  Catholics  have  also  been  revolutionists  because  they 
did  not  want  the  dictatorship  of  General  Diaz  and  gave 
you  their  moral  support.  This  is  proved  by  the  fact  that 
the  newspaper  that  most  virulently  attacked  the  dictator 
was  the  Catholic  newspaper,  El  Pah.  The  revolutionary 
ideal  of  vengeance  and  pillage  was  not  theirs;  neither  did 
they  wish  to  reestablish  the  Inquisition  and  the  reactionary 
government  of  Ferdinand  VII.  They  are  educated  and 
intelligent;  they  accept  the  Constitution  and  the  separation 
of  Church  and  State,  because  in  the  present  rotten  condition 
of  politics,  it  would  be  highly  undesirable  for  the  Catholic 
clergy,  who  have  for  so  many  years  been  patriotic  and 
virtuous,  to  submit  to  having  the  Government  appoint  bu- 
reaucratic bishops,  impregnated  with  the  bureaucratic  spirit, 
capable  of  dragging  the  Church  into  that  filthy  mire.  The 
Catholic  clergy  has  no  end  in  view  but  that  of  introducing 
religious  instruction  into  the  schools,  and  would  be  satisfied 
even  if  this  instruction  were  not  to  be  made  obligatory, 
simply  left  to  the  will  of  the  parents,  provided  at  their  ex- 
pense or  that  of  the  religious  lay  associations.  You  are  well 
aware  that  I  do  not  belong  to  the  Catholic  party;  but  it 
seems  to  me  intolerable  that  merely  in  order  to  support  the 
principle  of  the  lay  school  we  should  be  obliged  to  submit 
to  the  folly  of  trying  to  establish  a  parliamentary  form  of 
government  with  an  exclusive  faction,  misnamed  the  liberal, 


1 64      WHOLE   TRUTH    ABOUT    MEXICO 

which  would  lead  to  anarchy,  and  ultimately  to  a  dictator- 
ship. The  alternative  that  is  offered  to  all  reasonable  Mexi- 
cans is  the  ignominious  yoke  of  a  dictatorship,  or  the  intro- 
duction of  free  religious  instruction  in  the  public  schools. 
It  is  more  worthy,  more  humane,  more  patriotic  to  favor  the 
acceptance  of  religious  teaching  in  the  public  schools,  not 
offered  by  the  Government,  but  won  by  the  Catholics  in 
free  parliamentary  debate. 

"The  first  thing  you  should  do  is  radically  to  reform  the 
Constitution,  in  order  to  eliminate  the  revolutionary  pre- 
cept that  turns  the  House  of  Representatives  into  a  ferocious, 
anarchistic  convention,  possessing  the  right  to  accept  any  ac- 
cusation whatsoever  against  the  President  of  the  Republic, 
passing  sentence  upon  him  in  half  an  hour  and  depriving 
him  of  office  by  a  simple  majority  of  votes.  Amend  the 
Constitution  in  this  respect,  copying  that  of  the  United 
States,  which  has  been  adopted  with  modifications  by  Chile, 
Argentine  and  Brazil,  laying  down  the  rule  that  the  House 
of  Representatives  can  only  by  a  two-thirds  majority  de- 
clare that  there  is  cause  for  impeaching  the  President,  and 
that  the  body  to  try  him  shall  be  the  Senate,  which  cannot 
declare  him  guilty  except  by  a  two-thirds  majority  vote  of 
those  who  are  present. 

"Once  the  Constitution  has  been  reformed  so  that  the 
Chief  Executive  is  not  in  reality  the  slave  of  an  anarchistic 
convention,  assure  absolute  freedom  in  the  elections,  if  the 
Catholic  clergy  in  a  strictly  legal  manner;  that  is,  working 
as  individuals  and  not  as  a  corporation,  will  undertake  to 
organize,  discipline  and  direct  a  Catholic  party,  and  work 
for  a  program  that  will  have  your  approbation  and  that  of 
all  sane,  intelligent  and  liberal  persons. 

"Your  electoral  policy  should  be  confined  merely  to  keep- 
ing the  equilibrium  in  the  Lower  House  between  the  Catho- 
lic party  and  that  which  might  be  formed  from  the  coalition 
of  the  more  serious  elements  among  the  liberals  and  the 


MADERISM  165 

demagogues.  The  second  amendment  of  the  Constitution 
should  be  that  the  senators  and  the  judges  of  the  Supreme 
Federal  Court,  instead  of  being  elected  by  popular  vote, 
should  be  named  by  the  Senate,  with  the  approval  of  the 
Executive  as  well  as  that  of  the  judges  of  the  Court.  As 
you  can  count  at  present  upon  a  majority  in  the  Senate,  you 
can  create  the  new  one  with  an  honorable,  intelligent,  pa- 
triotic personnel,  one  that  carries  weight  in  the  eyes  of  the 
public.  Having  these  things  in  your  favor,  you  can  launch 
your  parliamentary  scheme,  which,  however,  may  end  in 
disaster,  as  the  Jacobin  bureaucratic  faction  will  naturally 
resent  the  granting  of  Government  positions  and  sinecures 
by  Catholic  cabinet  members,  although  it  may  be  within 
their  legitimate  province,  and  they  will  attempt  to  destroy 
the  system  that  has  taken  from  them  the  monopoly  of  Gov- 
ernment positions.  On  the  other  hand,  the  army  is  the 
traditional  enemy  of  civilian  presidents  and  the  friend  of  mili- 
tarism; but  at  the  same  time  it  must  be  taken  into  con- 
sideration that  even  though  the  Indian  soldiers  are  Catholics 
they  will  fight  for  or  against  Catholicism  with  equal  re- 
pugnance or  enthusiasm.  Moreover,  the  officers  are  nearly 
all  anti-Catholic  and  members  of  the  middle  class,  which 
aspires  to  hold  despotic  sway  over  the  country.  You  see, 
therefore,  that  there  are  three  roads  open  to  you:  The  first, 
the  absurd  one  of  trying  to  organize  a  dictatorship  with  only 
your  family  to  support  you;  the  second,  accepting  as  pos- 
sible the  formation  of  a  government  with  ranchmen,  cow- 
boys, bandits  and  demagogues  to  assist  you;  the  third,  the 
establishment  of  a  parliamentary  government,  which  lays 
claim  to  probabilities  of  success,  or  at  least  of  preserving 
the  semblance  of  government  that  would  be  indispensable 
for  the  ultimate  declaration  of  a  dictatorship  if  that  should 
become  necessary." 

Seiior  Madero  took  up  my  ideas  with  enthusiasm  and  of- 
fered to  carry  them  out.     Three  days  later  I  entered  the 


1 66      WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT   MEXICO 

House  of  Representatives  just  as  they  were  about  to  take 
up  the  discussion  of  a  projected  law  to  prevent  the  Catho- 
lics from  organizing  the  Catholic  party.  I  addressed  the 
House,  taking  as  my  theme  the  necessity  of  the  existence 
of  the  Catholic  party  for  the  establishment  in  Mexico  of  a 
responsible  government.  I  talked  at  some  length,  my  words 
producing  an  effect,  as  the  dropping  of  the  projected  law 
proved.  The  Catholic  party  was  formed,  and  undoubtedly 
worked  for  the  good  of  the  country. 

THE    BANEFUL    INFLUENCE    OF    GUSTAVO    MADERO 

One  month  after  my  speech  in  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives Senor  Gustavo  Madero,  who  was  dining  at  my  house, 
said  in  presence  of  Senor  Melgarejo  that  he  was  convinced 
that  General  Diaz  was  amply  justified  when  he  said,  as  he 
was  leaving  the  country  in  June,  1911:  "The  new  men 
will  soon  be  convinced  that  the  only  way  to  rule  the  Mexi- 
can people  is  the  way  I  have  ruled  them."  I  said  to  Senor 
Gustavo  Madero  that  in  all  probability  General  Diaz  was 
right,  but  that  even  if  he  were  right,  he  had  governed  the 
country  by  means  of  a  dictatorship  that  it  had  taken  eight 
years,  with  the  loyal  support  of  General  Manuel  Gonzalez, 
to  establish.  I  further  said  that  I  did  not  pretend  to  say 
that  eight  years  was  the  set  time  for  the  establishment  of  a 
dictatorship  in  Latin-America,  but  that  I  did  know  that  it 
could  not  be  done  in  eight  months,  or  in  sixteen,  or  in  twen- 
ty-four, and  that  he  was  attempting  to  create  his  brother  a 
dictator  before  he  was  a  president,  and  that,  what  was  even 
worse,  he  was  employing  the  repugnant,  irritating  methods 
that  had  driven  the  people  to  give  their  support  to  any  meas- 
ure that  would  insure  the  overthrow  of  the  dictator.  Senor 
Madero,  then  basking  in  the  sunshine  of  prosperity  and 
adulation,  called  me  a  pessimist,  and  followed  the  road  he 
had  mapped  out  until,  loathed  by  all,  he  fell  into  the  hands 
of  assassins  on  the  fateful  night  of  February  18,  1913. 


MADERISM  167 

I  believe  that  ft  was  the  influence  of  Senor  Gustavo  Ma- 
dero  that  was  the  chief  cause  of  the  political  and  personal 
ruin  of  his  brother.  President  Madero  was  always  hon- 
est in  the  matter  of  the  management  of  public  funds  and 
of  not  permitting  Government  frauds;  but  he  was  undoubt- 
edly disloyal,  not  against  the  revolution,  but  against  his  own 
ideals,  which  had  been  held  out  as  the  panacea  for  all  Mex- 
ico's troubles. 

Senor  Madero  permitted  the  Catholic  party  to  be  or- 
ganized, and  no  sooner  was  it  organized  than  he  tried,  un- 
der the  cloak  of  its  prestige,  to  force  the  candidacy  of  Senor 
Jose  Maria  Pino  Suarez  for  the  vice-presidency.  The  Catho- 
lic party  declined  to  be  coerced  and  put  forward  as  its  can- 
didate the  ex-president,  Senor  Francisco  L.  de  la  Barra, 
who  had  earned  the  good  will  and  applause  of  all  during 
his  term  of  president  ad  interim.  Senor  Gustavo  Madero, 
ill  advised  and  aiming  to  punish  the  Catholic  party,  stirred 
up  a  popular  demonstration  hostile  to  de  la  Barra,  to  the 
Catholics,  to  the  rich,  to  the  aristocracy — in  a  word,  a 
demagogic  demonstration  of  the  vilest  nature. 

The  Catholic  party  entered  the  elections  of  1912  in  ab- 
solutely good  faith,  as  it  had  done  the  elections  for  state 
governors.  In  these  it  had  demonstrated  its  power.  It 
carried  the  elections  in  the  states  of  Jalisco,  Mexico,  Quere- 
taro  and  Zacatecas,  and  would  have  won  except  for  the 
introduction  of  official  pressure,  which  violated  the  free- 
dom of  the  vote,  in  the  states  of  Guanajuato,  Michoacan 
and  Puebla.  In  the  state  of  Oaxaca,  except  for  the  pres- 
tige of  the  name  of  Juarez,  which  descended  to  his  son,  the 
Catholic  party  would  have  won  in  the  elections  for  gov- 
ernor. It  was  amply  proved  that  the  Catholic  party  pos- 
sessed the  force  to  elect  its  candidates  in  the  richest  and 
most  densely  populated  states  of  the  Republic.  In  the  Fed- 
eral elections  of  1912,  except  for  enormous  official  pressure, 
the  Catholics  would  have  obtained  the  majority  in  the 


1 68      WHOLE   TRUTH    ABOUT    MEXICO 

House  of  Representatives,  and  at  least  one-third  representa- 
tion in  the  Senate. 

The  course  followed  by  Senor  Gustavo  Madero,  as  well 
as  by  his  brother  Francisco,  was  indeed  despicable.  Of  the 
one  hundred  seats  in  the  House  of  Representatives  fairly 
won  by  the  Catholics,  the  censoring  board,  having  recourse 
to  the  most  barefaced  frauds,  nullified  more  than  forty  of 
the  electoral  college  votes.  The  Catholics  then  held  sixty 
places  when  they  appeared  before  the  electoral  college  of  the 
Lower  House,  and  here,  in  the  most  shameful,  dirty,  illegal 
and  despotic  manner,  the  majority  of  their  votes  were  dis- 
credited and  thrown  out,  leaving  them  only  twenty-three. 
The  same  tactics  were  followed  with  the  Independents,  with 
the  ultimate  result  that  the  Catholic  and  Independent  rep- 
resentation, combined,  was  reduced  to  forty-two  out  of  a 
total  of  two  hundred  and  thirty-three. 

Senor  Gustavo  Madero,  counting  always  upon  the  sup- 
port of  his  brother,  intervened  in  the  elections  of  San  Luis 
Potosi  and  Aguascalientes  to  place  in  office  personal  friends 
who  had  been  rejected  by  the  people  of  both  states.  He  also 
intervened  in  the  elections  of  Vera  Cruz,  the  gross  viola- 
tion of  electoral  freedom  causing  a  veritable  scandal.  To 
prevent  the  triumph  of  the  Catholic  candidate  in  Puebla,  it 
was  necessary  for  the  Madero  faction  to  join  hands  with 
the  discredited  party  headed  by  General  Mucio  Matinez, 
one  of  the  pro-consuls  of  the  overthrown  dictatorship.  In 
Yucatan  every  low  trick  was  resorted  to  to  defeat  Senor 
Delio  Moreno  Canton  in  order  to  install  Senor  Jose  M. 
Pino  Suarez's  brother-in-law  as  Governor.  In  the  states 
of  Chiapas,  Sinaloa,  Oaxaca,  Mexico,  Jalisco,  Tlaxcala  and 
Tamaulipas  election  frauds  also  took  place  equal  to  those 
practised  in  the  palmy  days  of  the  Porfirian  dictatorship. 

In  1893  the  Cientificos  obtained  the  vote  of  the  House  of 
Representatives  for  an  amendment  of  the  Constitution  which 


MADERISM  169 

would  guarantee  the  independence  of  the  judiciary.  The 
bill  was  sent  to  the  Senate,  where  it  was  held  up  by  Gen- 
eral Diaz.  He  did  not  reject  it,  because  he  did  not  want 
to  offend  the  Cientificos.  When  Madero  was  made  presi- 
dent the  senators,  who  under  the  old  regime  belonged  to 
the  Cientificos,  once  more  introduced  the  measure  of  con- 
stitutional amendment  with  regard  to  the  independence  of 
the  judiciary,  and  it  was  ignominiously  rejected  by  presi- 
dential decree. 

This  clearly  proves  that  the  hidden  project  of  the  Ma- 
deristas  had  been  to  keep  the  judiciary  under  their  thumb, 
just  as  had  been  done  by  the  Diaz  dictatorship. 

It  is  true  that  Sefior  Madero  granted  complete  freedom 
to  the  press,  but  it  is  also  true  that  he  attempted  to  throttle 
it  to  the  point  of  asphyxiation.  The  undeniable  proof  of 
this  is  the  fact  that  the  Department  of  the  Interior  intro- 
duced a  bill  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  aiming  to  cur- 
tail the  privileges  of  the  press,  signed  by  Senor  Jesus  Flores 
Magon,  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior.  When  Sefior  Flores 
Magon  resigned  the  portfolio  of  the  Interior,  he  explained 
his  anti-liberal  conduct  to  the  public  by  saying  that  he  had 
been  compelled  to  sign  the  much-censured  measure  in  order 
to  save  the  press  and  the  persons  connected  with  it  from  a 
campaign  against  them  proposed  by  Sefior  Jose  M.  Pino 
Suarez,  the  Secretary  of  Public  Instruction,  which  would 
have  been  more  harmful  to  them. 

It  is  undeniable  that  Gustavo  Madero  was  guilty  of  the 
unpardonable  fault  of  not  wanting  to  give  public  account  of 
the  700,000  pesos  he  received  from  the  Federal  Treasury 
to  defray  the  expenses  incurred  by  the  revolution.  It  is  also 
undeniable  that  he  undertook  the  promotion  of  numerous 
business  undertakings  submitted  to  him  by  persons  who  did 
not  stand  well  in  the  public  estimation. 

The  most  censurable  feature  of  Gustavo  Madero's  ad- 
ministration, however,  was  the  organization  of  the  "Porra," 


170      WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT    MEXICO 

an  association  of  demagogues  enlisted  for  the  purpose  of  ter- 
rorizing society  and  the  enemies  of  the  Government,  replac- 
ing the  fear  of  bayonets  with  the  terror  of  mobs.  Ruffians 
were  hired  at  seventy-five  cents  per  head  to  simulate  a 
grievance,  collect  a  crowd  and  march  through  the  streets, 
and,  in  the  name  of  the  aggrieved  populace,  they  not  only 
damaged  property  but  endangered  life.  It  would  have  been 
censurable  enough  and  entirely  unwarranted  by  the  situa- 
tion, in  view  of  his  social  station,  his  excellent  training,  his 
good  sentiments  and  his  position  as  the  President's  brother, 
had  Gustavo  Madero  actually  transformed  himself  into  the 
Mexican  Marat;  but  it  is  simply  astounding  that  he  should 
have  been  willing  to  appear  in  the  role  of  a  sham  Marat. 
This  gained  for  him  only  the  intense  hatred  of  the  people, 
and  explains  why  his  foul  murder  was  looked  upon  with 
indifference,  if  not  actual  approval,  by  the  public. 

It  is  also  undeniable  that  the  Madero  Government  proved 
itself  impotent  to  restore  peace.  From  the  revolt  of  Zapata 
in  August,  1911,  to  the  fall  of  Madero  in  1913,  there  was 
not  a  single  day  of  peace,  life  and  property  being  in  constant 
danger. 

By  railing  at  the  army,  during  the  revolution  and  after  its 
triumph,  and  accusing  it  of  treason,  cowardice  and  vileness 
for  not  having  turned  against  Diaz  and  relieved  the  nation 
of  the  burden  of  his  dictatorship,  President  Madero  had 
incurred  its  ill-will  and  hatred. 

Neither  President  Madero  nor  his  honest  followers  had 
any  right  to  censure  the  defection  of  Huerta,  because  the 
doctrine  of  "the  Apostle"  was  that  every  military  man 
was  obliged  to  judge  the  Government's  conduct,  and,  if  he 
found  it  unpatriotic,  to  transfer  his  allegiance  unhesitatingly 
in  order  to  save  the  country.  Huerta  could  have  said  to 
Madero:  "I  have  acted  toward  you  as  you  wanted  me  to  act 
toward  General  Diaz." 


MADERISM  171 

THE   TRUE   INWARDNESS   OF   MADERISM 

I  have  exposed  the  principal  errors  and  faults  of  the  ad- 
ministration of  President  Madero.  Were  they  serious 
enough  to  have  justified  an  uprising? 

On  April  2,  1911,  I  introduced  a  measure  in  the  House 
of  Representatives  for  non-reelection  of  President  and  Vice- 
President,  and  in  the  expository  section  I  said  that  I  did  not 
believe  in  the  Mexican  people's  fitness  for  democracy,  neither, 
on  the  other  hand,  did  I  believe  in  their  absolute  lack  of 
capacity  to  progress  in  a  political  sense.  I  explained  that 
the  liberal  Latin-American  politicians,  on  account  of  their 
Jacobin  theories  and  tendencies,  were  guilty  of  the  incon- 
ceivable stupidity  of  believing  that  a  people  that  had  lived 
for  thirty  years  under  the  yoke  of  an  harmonious  dictator- 
ship such  as  that  of  General  Diaz  (because  if  it  had  not  been 
harmonious  it  could  not  have  endured  for  thirty  years)  could 
perform  a  virtual  acrobatic  feat  and  pass  from  a  despotic 
system  of  government  to  the  correct  parliamentary  form 
existing-  in  England,  or  to  the  federal  democracy  of  the 
United  States.  As  I  was  a  believer  in  evolution,  I  thought 
Mexico  ought  to  aim,  as  it  was  evolving  from  a  rigid  dic- 
tatorship, at  establishing  a  form  of  government  similar  to 
that  of  Chile,  Argentine  or  Brazil,  so-called  democracies, 
in  which  real  political  parties  do  not  exist,  where  the  elec- 
tions are  repulsively  fraudulent,  owing  to  the  bribery  of 
electors,  and  where  scandalously  corrupt  bureaucracies  dom- 
inate. In  these  nations  two  practical  principles  are  upheld, 
non-reelection  and  freedom  of  the  press.  The  Mexicans 
ought  to  make  a  trial  of  liberty,  combined  with  corrupt 
democracy,  upheld  by  freedom  of  the  press  and  non-reelection. 
If  success  crowned  the  effort,  they  should  adopt  a  govern- 
ment similar  to  that  of  these  nations,  accepting  as  unavoid- 
able its  inherent  abuses.  If  the  trial  ended  in  failure,  there 
was  no  alternative  but  to  go  back  to  the  dictatorship,  under 


172      WHOLE   TRUTH    ABOUT    MEXICO 

the  condition  that  if  the  dictator  did  not  keep  up  with  the 
advance  of  civilization,  he  should  be  overthrown,  and  this 
policy  continued  until  the  right  man  was  found. 

I  have  repeated  my  words,  spoken  publicly  before  the 
House  of  Representatives,  in  order  to  establish  what  in  my 
mind  is  the  criterion  by  which  the  Madero  administration  is 
to  be  judged.  Dupuy  has  said:  "A  revolution  to  be  legiti- 
mate must  establish  something  better  than  what  it  over- 
throws." 

I  have  said  that  in  1910  of  the  twenty-seven  governors 
the  great  majority  were  useless,  or  almost  useless,  old  men. 
The  list  of  governors  under  the  Madero  administration,  as 
it  appeared  on  January  I,  1913,  was  composed  of  seven  gov- 
ernors who  were  between  fifty  and  sixty  years  of  age;  one 
was  sixty-two,  nineteen  were  between  thirty  and  fifty. 
There  was  not  one  under  thirty.  Twenty-two  were  entirely 
new  men;  five  belonged  to  the  old  regime,  but  were  men 
noted  for  their  fitness  and  uprightness.  With  regard  to  age 
and  personnel  the  revolution,  then,  effected  a  wholesome 
change.  Of  the  twenty-seven  governors  appointed  by  Ma- 
dero, nineteen  had  irreproachable  reputations ;  eight  were  out 
and  out  scoundrels.  In  1910,  under  General  Diaz,  eighteen 
were  upright  and  nine  were  rascals.  Of  the  eight  unworthy 
governors  of  the  Madero  regime,  six  were  imposed  by  pres- 
sure brought  to  bear  by  Gustavo  Madero,  and  two  were 
elected  by  free  vote.  Therefore,  in  this  electoral  test,  essayed 
in  the  name  of  liberty,  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  the 
avowed  principles  of  the  initiators  of  the  revolution,  not  of 
Madero's  following,  were  "vengeance  and  pillage,"  and  not- 
withstanding the  deficiencies  of  the  electoral  system  due  to 
the  incapacity  of  the  people,  the  lack  of  real  political  parties 
and  the  want  of  practice,  out  of  twenty-one  governors  not 
imposed  by  the  Government,  nineteen  who  were  independ- 
ent of  Gustavo  Madero's  coercion  were  successfully  elected. 

The  secretaries  of  the  various  departments  under  Madero 


MADERISM  173 

were  all  men  of  talent.  The  honesty  of  six  was  unjustly 
impugned,  and  two  were  attacked  without  proof  of  their 
guilt  being  established  by  their  enemies.  In  the  time  of  Gen- 
eral Diaz,  of  the  eight  departmental  secretaries,  four  were 
accused  of  dishonesty,  proof,  however,  not  being  brought 
forward  to  substantiate  the  allegation. 

The  Supreme  Federal  Court  in  the  time  of  General  Diaz 
was  servile  in  its  docility  to  the  decrees  of  higher  authority 
even  when  it  was  a  question  of  an  unjust  sentence.  Not- 
withstanding the  fact  that  Madero  rejected  the  Senate's 
measure  to  free  the  judiciary  from  the  control  of  the  Chief 
Executive,  there  is  no  record  of  President  Madero,  his 
brother  Gustavo,  or  any  official  or  person  of  high  rank  hav- 
ing made  use  of  this  prerogative  in  regard  to  affairs  of  a 
private  or  personal  nature.  In  political  affairs  President 
Madero  ineffectually  brought  pressure  to  bear  on  the  Su- 
preme Federal  Court  in  the  case  of  General  Felix  Diaz,  who 
had  been  captured  at  Vera  Cruz,  court-martialed  and  sen- 
tenced to  death.  From4i882  to  1911,  when  it  recovered  its 
independence  and  honor  in  so  far  as  it  was  able,  the  Supreme 
Federal  Court  was  the  instrument  for  all  the  vile,  dirty  work 
of  the  Chief  Executive. 

This  tribunal  took  special  pains  to  despatch  quickly  and 
correctly,  and  according  to  the  rules  of  favoritism,  all  the 
business  of  the  dictatorship  it  had  on  hand  at  the  time  of 
General  Diaz's  downfall.  It  should  be  noted  that  from  the 
fall  of  General  Diaz  to  that  of  Madero  there  was  justice  in 
Mexico.  This  alone  would  be  sufficient  reason  for  applaud- 
ing a  revolution,  especially  as  the  watchword  of  its  progeni- 
tors had  been  "vengeance  and  pillage." 

The  Catholic  party,  as  I  have  said,  was  deprived  of  its 
electoral  votes,  outraged  by  hostile  demonstrations  on  the 
part  of  the  people,  and  the  broken  promises  of  the  President, 
given  before  and  after  his  triumph.  In  General  Diaz's  time 
the  Catholics  were  forbidden  to  organize  political  parties 


174      WHOLE   TRUTH    ABOUT    MEXICO 

and  also  to  found  political  newspapers  for  the  furtherance  of 
their  cause.  They  were  admitted  into  the  two  Houses  of 
Congress,  the  Judiciary,  the  Diplomatic  and  Administrative 
service  as  the  unconditional  subjects  of  the  dictatorship, 
bound  strictly  by  the  Porfirian  precept,  "No  politics,  all 
Government,"  which  was  only  another  way  of  saying,  "No 
personal  rights,  all  obedience."  This  is  a  variant  of  the 
motto  of  Charles  III  of  Spain,  held  up  to  the  colonists  of  the 
Indies,  "Obey  and  be  silent."  Notwithstanding  the  disloy- 
alty of  "the  Apostle"  toward  the  Catholics,  thanks  to  the 
freedom  they  enjoyed  under  his  rule,  they  managed  to  or- 
ganize their  party,  although  in  a  somewhat  deficient  man- 
ner. Twenty-three  of  their  number  obtained  seats  in  the 
House  of  Representatives.  Some  of  these  were  good  orators 
who  made  their  voices  reach  to  the  utmost  confines  of  the 
Republic,  righting  for  the  triumph  of  their  principles,  their 
heads  held  high  in  the  consciousness  of  their  restored  rights. 
Their  situation  was  vastly  superior  to  that  which  for  thirty- 
three  years  they  had  endured  under  the  dictatorship  of  Gen- 
eral Diaz. 

It  is  true  that  President  Madero  introduced  a  bill  into  the 
lower  house  directed  against  the  freedom  of  the  press.  But 
when  he  was  confronted  by  the  violent  attitude  of  the  press 
and  of  public  opinion,  he  withdrew  the  unpopular  measure. 
After  submitting  for  thirty-three  years  to  the  yoke  of  a 
Government-censured  press,  the  public  wanted  to  reap  the 
benefits  of  a  free  press,  however  unworthy  of  freedom  it 
might  be. 

The  Lower  House  after  the  elections  of  1912  bore  more 
semblance  to  a  ward  club  than  to  a  respectable  legislative 
body.  Good  speeches,  however,  were  heard,  crude  polemics 
introduced,  wrongs  openly  discussed ;  all  of  these  being  signs 
of  life  grateful  to  the  ear  after  the  oppressive  silence  of 
thirty  years.  This  body,  although  the  Government  held  an 
overwhelming  majority,  was  not  subservient,  neither  did  it 


MADERISM  175 

present  the  appearance  of  a  pack  of  donkeys  peacefully  doz- 
ing after  a  comfortable  meal.  Gustavo  Madero's  porra 
(mob)  parliament,  except  for  a  few  worn-out  and  discarded 
specimens  of  the  dictatorial  regime,  resembled  a  drove  of 
spirited  ponies,  noble  despite  their  viciousness.  Notwith- 
standing its  crudeness,  this  attempt  at  free  parliamentary  ex- 
pression was  a  step  forward  as  compared  with  the  degrada- 
tion imposed  by  the  Porfirian  methods. 

MADERISM    MIGHT    HAVE    PACIFIED   THE   COUNTRY 

Undoubtedly  the  government  of  President  Madero  was 
very  far  from  representing  a  democracy;  but  on  the  other 
hand  it  was  just  as  far  from  representing  the  dictatorship 
of  General  Diaz,  either  in  its  flourishing  or  decadent  stage. 

Of  the  leading  principles  of  the  governments  of  the  South 
American  Republics,  non-reelection  and  the  freedom  of  the 
press,  the  latter  appeared  already  to  have  been  realized,  and 
the  former  in  all  probability  soon  would  be.  In  political 
circles  it  was  feared  that  Gustavo  Madero,  supported 
by  his  family  and  official  influence,  would  succeed  his 
brother  in  the  presidency.  Even  if  such  had  been  the 
case  it  would  always  have  been  a  step  forward,  because  no 
two  men,  even  if  they  are  brothers,  would  give  the  same  or 
even  a  similar  form  of  government.  This  was  exemplified  in 
the  time  of  the  dictatorship  by  the  government  of  the  broth- 
ers Diez  Gutierrez  in  the  state  of  San  Luis  Potosi,  and  that 
of  the  three  Cravioto  brothers  in  the  state  of  Hidalgo.  It 
was  also  more  than  probable  that  no  member  of  the  Madero 
family  would  have  succeeded  Gustavo  Madero. 

From  the  preceding  facts,  stated  with  absolute  impartial- 
ity, it  will  be  seen  that  the  Madero  Government  fulfilled  the 
Dupuy  condition;  it  gave  something  better  than  that  which 
it  overthrew.  The  dreadful  feature  of  this  regime  was  the 
want  of  peace,  so  essential  as  the  fundamental  basis  of  gov- 


i;6      WHOLE   TRUTH    ABOUT    MEXICO 

ernment  and  society.  Without  peace  the  brink  of  the  abyss 
is  soon  reached,  and  the  mere  fact  that  a  Government  is  im- 
potent to  restore  peace  is  enough  to  justify  a  revolution. 

Why  was  President  Madero  unable  to  pacify  the  coun- 
try and  prevent  the  revolutionary  movements  of  Zapata, 
Orozco,  Vazquez  Gomez,  Felix  Diaz  and  Reyes?  All  these 
disturbances  could  in  my  estimation  have  been  avoided  if 
the  Madero  administration  had  been  able  to  count  upon  pol- 
iticians of  high  calibre.  Zapata  issued  his  Plan  de  Ayala 
on  November  25,  1911,  and,  as  I  remarked  in  my  article 
in  El  PaiSj  this  plan  is  worthy  of  study  and  approbation, 
with  the  exception  of  one  absurd  clause:  "The  claimant  is 
to  be  put  in  possession  of  the  disputed  property,  rural  or 
urban,  from  the  moment  he  makes  his  claim,  unless  the  dis- 
possessed has  proved  his  claim  to  it  before  a  revolutionary 
tribunal." 

The  Plan  de  Ayala  required  that  the  planters,  having  re- 
ceived indemnity,  should  hand  over  one-third  of  their  arable 
land  to  the  villages  or  to  the  poor.  The  planters  of  Morelos 
developed  only  one-fifth  of  the  arable  land  in  the  cultivation 
of  sugar-cane  and  rice,  and  could,  therefore,  without  hurting 
their  own  interest  in  the  slightest,  meet  the  requirements  of 
the  Plan  de  Ayala,  always  provided,  of  course,  that  the 
absurd  clause  referring  to  disputed  titles  was  omitted.  In 
Part  First  I  have  stated  that  the  distribution  of  land  in  gen- 
eral is  not  feasible,  because  the  greatest  portion  of  it  is  in 
the  temperate  and  cold  zones,  and  cannot  be  advantageously 
cultivated  without  the  installation  of  irrigation  plants.  It 
is  precisely  in  Morelos  that  the  land  might  be  advanta- 
geously distributed  for  the  following  reason:  The  climate 
is  semi-tropical,  and  the  land  not  completely  exhausted,  as 
it  is  still  capable  of  producing  from  16  to  20  hectoliters  of 
corn  per  hectare.  It  is  not  exposed  to  frosts  because  of  i<$ 
situation,  and  the  rainfall  is  less  irregular  and  more  abunda  it 
than  in  other  sections.  The  state  of  Morelos  is  one  of  the 


MADERISM  177 

few  states  in  the  Republic  in  which  the  distribution  of  land 
might  be  undertaken  at  once  with  great  possibilities  of  a  suc- 
cessful issue. 

Zapata  demanded  that  the  Federal  forces  should  not  put 
foot  in  the  state  of  Morelos,  and  that  the  elections  should  be 
entirely  free.  It  is  evident  that  the  acceptance  of  the  first 
condition  was  humiliating  for  the  Government  and  the  Mex- 
ican nation ;  but  political  situations  sometimes  present  humil- 
iating circumstances  that  must  be  met  with  courage  and  pa- 
triotism. In  La  Prensa,  in  the  capacity  of  editor,  I  upheld 
Zapata's  demands  and  insisted  upon  the  necessity  of  some- 
times bowing  to  the  inevitable,  citing  several  examples.  For 
instance,  the  conduct  of  the  notably  patriotic  governor  of 
Jalisco,  Sefior  Pedro  Ogazon,  who  signed  a  compact  with  the 
bandit  Manuel  Lozada,  chief  of  the  Sierra  de  Alica,  and 
owner  of  the  territory  of  Tepic,  recognizing  the  absolute 
sovereignty  of  Lozada  in  the  confines  of  Tepic.  Also 
Juarez's  conduct  in  recognizing  the  absolute  sovereignty  of 
General  Santiago  Vidaurri,  governor  of  Nuevo  Leon  and 
Coahuila;  of  General  Servando  Canales,  governor  of  Ta- 
maulipas;  and  that  of  Generals  Terrazas,  Pesqueira,  Vega, 
Alvarez  and  Mendez,  the  respective  chiefs  of  the  states  of 
Chihuahua,  Sonora,  Sinaloa,  Guerrero  and  Sierra  de  Puebla. 
In  1869,  after  the  struggle  in  the  state  of  Tamaulipas,  as 
bloody  and  savage  as  that  of  Zapata,  in  which  the  Federal 
forces  fought  those  led  by  Braulio  Vargas  and  other  bandit 
chiefs  in  revolt  against  the  legitimate  governor  of  the  state, 
Jose  de  la  Garza,  the  President  obliged  Garza  to  satisfy  the 
demands  of  the  bandits  by  resigning. 

I  may  be  quite  mistaken,  but  it  is  my  conviction  that  if 
Zapata's  demands,  with  the  exception  of  the  one  absurd 
clause  already  noted,  had  been  granted  at  the  time,  Zapata 
would  have  submitted ;  or  perhaps  it  would  be  more  exact 
to  say  that  the  Government  would  have  submitted.  But 
at  any  rate  it  would  have  been  an  honorable  submission,  be- 


178      WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT   MEXICO 

cause  a  deed  of  justice  or  of  intelligent  patriotic  policy  cannot 
be  anything  but  an  honor  to  the  one  who  executes  it. 

The  first  revolt  of  Reyes  could  have  been  prevented  by 
not  permitting  him  to  return  in  1911.  This,  however,  was 
not  a  serious  mistake,  because  when  General  Reyes  raised 
the  standard  of  revolt  in  December,  1911,  he  found  that  he 
stood  alone,  or,  more  properly  speaking,  disillusioned,  for  he 
saw  the  country  no  longer  wanted  him  and  that  he  was  as 
unpopular,  if  not  more  so,  than  the  Cientificos. 

As  Orozco  was  the  "military  genius"  of  the  Madero  rev- 
olution, following  historic  precedents  he  had  to  rebel  against 
Madero  and  demand  the  presidency.  Madero,  who  in  the 
days  of  his  popularity  was  irresistible  and  could  have  anni- 
hilated any  rival,  should  have  settled  the  Orozco  problem 
definitely.  Instead  of  giving  him  only  50,000  pesos  when  he 
asked  for  100,000,  the  amount  that  was  given  without  any 
justification  to  Jose  M.  Maytorena,  "the  Apostle"  should 
have  given  the  "military  genius"  500,000  pesos,  on  condition 
that  he  take  himself  off  to  Europe  for  two  years  for  the  pur- 
pose of  educating  himself  in  order  to  receive  the  post  of  Di- 
vision General  or  Grand  Marshal  of  the  Mexican  army. 
This  might  not  have  pleased  the  Federal  chiefs,  but  this  dis- 
pleasure could  not  have  occasioned  any  serious  trouble,  as 
was  proved  when  Huerta  irregularly  raised  Orozco,  Cara- 
veo,  Cheche  Campos,  Campa  and  others  to  the  rank  of  gen- 
erals. 

With  regard  to  General  Reyes  and  Felix  Diaz,  their  in- 
ordinate ambition,  their  indomitable  spirit  of  intrigue,  their 
endless  conspiracies,  their  decision  to  take  the  presidency  by 
storm  were  well  known.  Reyes  and  Felix  Diaz  never  would 
have  overthrown  Benito  Juarez  or  Porfirio  Diaz  in  their 
heyday,  because  they  would  have  found  it  very  difficult  to 
carry  out  the  first  revolt;  and  a  second  would  have  been 
impossible,  because  dead  men  cannot  revolt.  Madero  cap- 
tured Reyes  and  Diaz  knowing,  as  he  publicly  acknowledged, 


MADERISM  179 

that  they  were  conspiring  against  him.  Nevertheless  he 
scorned  them.  The  ruler  who  scorns  not  only  danger,  but 
the  greatest  danger  that  threatens  in  countries  where  the 
stable  government  is  constantly  endangered  by  the  military 
power,  is  not  fit  to  rule. 

REGICIDE   AND  ANARCHY  ADDED  TO  THE  REVOLUTIONARY 
PROGRAM 

Senor  Ernesto  Fernandez  Arteaga  told  me  that  many 
years  ago  when  Madero  was  still  quite  young  and  with  no 
thought  of  becoming  a  revolutionist,  while  visiting  the  house 
of  his  father,  Senor  Ramon  Fernandez,  a  highly  educated 
and  intelligent  man,  he  proposed  to  Dr.  Fernandez's  sons 
that  they  consult  the  spirits  by  means  of  the  famous  plan- 
chette.  One  of  the  questions  asked  evoked  the  answer  that 
Francisco  Madero  would  one  day  be  the  President  of  the 
Mexican  Republic.  Madero  was  greatly  flattered  by  this 
prognostication  and  took  it  quite  seriously,  much  to  the 
amusement  of  Dr.  Fernandez,  who  advised  him  to  regard 
with  well-merited  contempt  all  spiritistic  revelations.  Ma- 
dero replied  that  under  no  circumstances  would  he  disregard 
the  supreme  decisions  of  the  high  science  of  spiritism.  From 
the  day  of  the  casting  of  this  horoscope,  so  fateful  for  his 
country,  Madero  many  times  reminded  his  friend,  Senor 
Fernandez  Arteaga,  of  the  spiritistic  prophecy  that  he 
(Madero)  would  one  day  be  the  president  of  Mexico. 

Madero,  then,  was  of  the  illumined,  with  the  aggravating 
circumstance  that  he  was  also  of  the  predestined.  His  am- 
bition, therefore,  was  fired  by  the  belief  in  the  sacredness,  the 
supernaturalness,  the  inevitableness  of  his  cause.  Under 
these  circumstances  he  could  not  be  a  statesman  or,  what 
amounts  to  the  same,  a  man  who  as  circumstances  unfold 
themselves  can  adapt  himself  to  them,  showing  mercy  or 
cruelty,  pliability  or  inflexibility.  The  predestined  one  is 
guided  unerringly,  by  the  hand  of  God  or  the  hand  of  Fate, 
and  omnipotence  cannot  fail.  The  predestined  one  feels  strong 


i8o      WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT   MEXICO 

enough  to  despise  all  manner  of  obstacles  that  may  cross  his 
pathway,  to  look  upon  everything  human,  great  or  small,  as 
infinitesimal,  unworthy  of  care  or  thought.  Obeying  the 
laws  of  this  condition  of  mind,  Madero  was  bound  to  de- 
spise or  to  be  indifferent  to  all  the  Mexican  intellectuals, 
and  to  be  resolved  to  govern  only  with  the  aid  of  the  in- 
telligence of  the  supernatural  beings  who  guided  him.  I 
have  proved  that  the  Madero  Government,  except  for  its 
inability  to  preserve  peace,  was  superior  to  that  of  Diaz,  and 
should  have  been  aided  in  restoring  peace,  not  overthrown. 
The  Madero  Government  was  demolished  by  the  efforts  of 
the  intellectuals,  who  sought  to  place  it  before  the  nation 
as  the  worst  Government  Mexico  had  had  since  the  Dec- 
laration of  Independence.  This  destruction  of  Madero's 
prestige  in  the  eyes  of  the  nation  was  the  great  and  memora- 
ble revenge  of  the  intellectuals  for  the  "illumined  Apostle's" 
contempt  for  them. 

Senor  Fernandez  Giiell,  ex-director  of  the  Mexican  Na- 
tional Library  in  the  City  of  Mexico,  a  frantic  partisan  of 
Madero,  and  the  author  of  an  apologetic  book  dedicated  to 
"the  admired  martyr,"  says:  "At  the  time  of  the  up- 
rising in  Vera  Cruz,  the  Federal  Government  relied  entirely 
upon  the  loyalty  of  the  army. 

"All  the  glory  of  the  revolutionary  leader  had  vanished 
like  a  cloud.  Surrounded  by  Cientificos,  far  from  the  masses, 
the  Apostle  appeared  before  the  public  on  official  occasions 
only,  and  the  people  of  Mexico  watched  him  with  profound 
indifference  as  he  rode  down  the  Avenida  de  San  Francisco 
on  February  5th  in  an  open  carriage,  between  two  files  of 
soldiers,  followed  by  the  Diplomatic  Corps,  a  squadron  of 
the  Presidential  Guard,  the  Chapultepec  Cadets  and  a  divi- 
sion of  artillery. 

"Salvos  no  longer  greeted  him;  neither  did  gratitude  or 
enthusiasm  rain  down  flowers  on  his  noble  brow."1 

1 R.  Fernandez  Giiell,  Eptsodios  de  la  Revolution  Mexicana, 
p.  185. 


MADERISM  iS 

Senor  Fernandez  Giiell  states  what  every  one  in  Mexico 
knew  to  be  a  fact,  that  by  October,  1912,  less  than  a  year 
after  he  had  assumed  the  presidency,  Madero  was  completely 
disparaged  in  the  eyes  of  all  classes  of  society,  from  the 
highest  to  the  lowest. 

Senor  Jose  N.  Macias,  an  ex-representative  of  the  Diaz 
regime,  an  gex-Maderista,  and  now  a  fervent  admirer  of 
Carranza,  by  whom  he  has  been  named  director  of  the 
School  of  Jurisprudence  in  the  City  of  Mexico,  says,  re- 
ferring to  the  fall  of  Madero:  "A  president  elected  for  five 
years,  overthrown  in  fifteen  months,  has  no  one  to  blame  but 
himself.  The  cause  is  this,  and  history,  if  it  is  unbiased,  will 
proclaim  it:  he  did  not  know  how  to  uphold  himself."  1 


THE   ATTITUDE   OF  THE    INTELLECTUALS   WAS   MALEVOLENT 

The  intellectuals  cannot  be  blamed  for  having  opposed 
President  Madero's  Government,  because  it  is  not  possible 
to  have  a  responsible,  representative  government  without  op- 
position. A  government  without  opposition  is  a  despotic 
government.  Moral  law  cites  many  principles  for  the  guid- 
ance of  patriotic  government  opposition,  but  these  have  not 
found  acceptance  among  the  politicians  of  any  nation.  Poli- 
tics is  the  most  engrossing  of  all  occupations,  the  one  that 
becomes  a  veritable  passion,  that  exalts,  that  blinds,  one  that, 
in  the  opinion  of  medical  experts,  is  capable  of  turning  men 
into  wild  beasts.  On  the  other  hand,  in  countries  where  the 
government  practically  never  changes  except  through  revo- 
lutions, opposition,  the  object  of  which  is  change,  would 
prove  ridiculous,  inoffensive  and  ineffectual,  if  its  principal 
aim  were  not  the  overthrow  of  the  government  by  the  only 
means  known  to  history — a  revolution. 

1  Fernandez  Cabrera,  Mi  Viaje  a  Mexico,  p.  218. 


1 82      WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT   MEXICO 

The  theorem  of  May  is  well  known :  "The  power  of  the 
press  can  be  balanced  only  by  the  power  of  the  press." 
In  other  words,  the  opposition  press  should  work  against  the 
government  press.  This  is  only  possible  in  countries  where 
two  distinct  political  parties  exist,  and  where  the  opinions 
of  the  newspapers  representing  both  sides  carry  equal  weight 
with  the  people.  In  Latin-America,  and  especially  in  coun- 
tries ruled  by  dictators,  the  people,  as  a  whole,  condemn  the 
existence  of  a  government  press.  They  hate  and  despise  it, 
and  reject  its  opinions  as  productive  of  revolutionary  sen- 
timents. 

No  Mexican  Government  can  defend  itself  against  an  op- 
position press  except  by  silencing  it;  not  by  radical  means, 
but  by  corruption  or  by  buying  up  all  newspapers.  These 
do  not  appear  as  Government  organs,  but  independent 
or  opposing,  cultivating  the  species  of  opposition  set  forth 
in  moral  law  books.  This  difficult  problem,  in  countries 
where  government  intervention  is  a  drawback  rather  than 
a  help,  can  be  solved  only  by  silencing  the  journalists, 
or  making  them  subservient  by  means  of  bribes.  In  Spain 
this  fund  appears  in  the  secret  expense  account  under  the 
heading,  "Reptile  Fund."  In  Mexico,  from  the  time  of  the 
Declaration  of  Independence,  all  the  governments,  conserv- 
ative, liberal  and  dictatorial,  including  that  of  Juarez,  pro- 
vided for  their  own  protection,  and  to  insure  peace  for  the 
country,  a  substantial  "reptile  fund."  General  Diaz  used 
to  say:  "Give  a  dog  a  bone  and  he  will  neither  bite  nor 
bark." 

Cases  of  journalists  and  newspaper  owners  in  Latin- 
America  who  cannot  be  bought  could  be  cited,  but  they  are 
the  exception.  Generally  speaking,  they  belong  to  the  seri- 
ous, non-seditious  class,  because  they  are  supported  by  com- 
mercial advertisements  and  plutocratic  interests  which  are 
intelligently  conservative  and  opposed  to  revolutions. 

The    Madero    Government    was    signalized    by    incom- 


MADERISM  183 

petency;  but  freedom  of  the  press  as  it  now  exists  would 
have  been  in  itself  sufficient  to  compass  its  ruin,  even  if  it 
had  been  the  most  perfect  government  in  the  history  of  the 
political  world. 

The  intellectuals  should  not  be  blamed  for  opposing 
the  Madero  Government,  because  the  opposition  had  in 
view  the  conquest  of  the  supreme  power.  It  is  true  that  this 
policy  is  condemned  by  moral  law  and  public  ethics,  but  it 
is  the  inexorable  law  of  politics  everywhere.  All  opposi- 
tion has  for  its  object  the  conquest  of  the  supreme  power, 
making  use  of  the  means  demanded  by  the  situation.  Ac- 
cording to  a  rigorous  moral  standard,  then,  the  methods  of 
all  politicians  are  unethical,  excepting  in  a  few  rare  instances, 
which  in  Latin-America  are  the  exception  and  not  the  rule. 
The  great  fault  to  be  found  with  the  intellectuals  who 
accomplished  the  downfall  of  Madero  is  that  their  work 
was  destructive,  not  constructive. 

In  the  Senate  the  leading  intellectuals  of  the  opposi- 
tion were  Senores  Manuel  Calero,  Gumersindo  Enriquez, 
Francisco  Leon  de  la  Barr,  J.  Flores  Magon  and  Guillermo 
Obregon.  Three  gave  open  expression  to  their  views;  two 
had  recourse  to  clever  political  evasions.  These  five  men  did 
not  belong  to  any  political  party,  faction  or  coterie,  neither 
were  they  united  among  themselves.  They  represented  an 
alliance  of  individual  forces  formed  for  the  sole  purpose  of 
overthrowing  Madero,  but  having  a  horror  of  acting  as  a 
useful  political  organ. 

In  the  House  of  Representatives,  which  possesses  the  ad- 
vantage of  exercising  the  same  influence  over  the  public 
mind  as  a  great  national  theatre,  the  floor  was  held  by  the 
famous  quartet,  Senores  Querido  Moheno,  Jose  M.  Lozano, 
Francisco  Olaguibel  and  Nemasio  Garcia  Naranjo.  They 
were  veteran  politicians  and  veritable  powers  by  reason  of 
their  oratorical  force.  Being  fine  tacticians,  they  never  lost 
an  opportunity  of  surprising  their  weaker  antagonists,  who, 


1 84      WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT    MEXICO 

with  the  exception  of  Cabrera,  laid  themselves  open  to  ridi- 
cule eVery  time  they  attempted  to  speak  or  introduce  a  bill, 
their  humiliation  being  the  humiliation  of  the  Government 
they  represented.  When  free  speech  is  allowed  in  the  House, 
the  Chief  Executive,  if  he  does  not  govern  with  alternating 
political  parties,  should  endeavor  to  be  represented  by  the 
best  politicians  and  the  best  orators.  This  can  be  easily  ac- 
complished by  selecting  for  the  Cabinet  those  who  have  dis- 
tinguished themselves  as  orators  or  politicians;  and  when, 
through  enmity  or  personal  dislike,  objection  is  made  to  their 
participation,  the  Government  should  work  in  the  elections 
to  seat  in  the  Lower  House  men  who  are  able  to  represent  it 
brilliantly  and  capably.  If  this  cannot  be  done,  in  Latin- 
America  recourse  can  be  had  to  the  usual  practice  of  dis- 
crediting the  electoral  votes  of  candidates  antagonistic  to  the 
Government.  Gustavo  Madero  made  a  veritable  holocaust 
of  the  votes  of  more  than  fifty  undesirable  candidates,  and 
approved  those  of  Lozano,  Olaguibel  and  Garcia  Naranjo. 

The  attitude  of  the  Catholic  party  in  the  Lower  House 
in  1912  and  1913  was  censurable.  They  attempted  to  assume 
an  independent  attitude,  something  that  may  be  done  by 
individuals,  but  not  by  political  parties,  because  the  very 
reason  of  their  being  is  to  represent  and  fight  for  party  prin- 
ciples. Where  there  are  political  parties,  independent  mem- 
bers always  exist  who  by  their  very  anxiety  to  preserve  their 
independence  cut  themselves  off  from  all  parties.  A  political 
party's  duty  in  the  time  of  battle  is  to  preserve  a  militant, 
resolute  and  loyal  attitude. 

The  Catholic  party  in  1912  and  1913  did  not  do  its  duty. 
On  behalf  of  religion,  it  was  its  duty  to  oppose  the  anti- 
religious  revolution  in  the  north;  on  behalf  of  society,  it 
was  its  duty  to  be  conservative,  especially  as  the  Zapatistas 
in  the  south  and  the  revolutionists  in  the  north  were  attack- 
ing the  rights  of  property ;  and  on  behalf  of  the  Government, 
it  was  its  duty  to  uphold  it,  because,  not  being  able  to  lay 


MADERISM  185 

claim  to  the  power  of  governing  in  the  case  of  Madero's 
overthrow,  it  was  its  duty  to  prevent  anarchy.  Its  place 
was  at  the  side  of  Madero,  but  instead  of  meeting  its  obli- 
gation, it  followed  a  vacillating  policy  that  contributed 
greatly  to  the  downfall  of  the  Government. 

The  quartet  in  the  House  of  Representatives  marched 
united,  though  unconsciously,  toward  an  abyss.  This  quad- 
rilateral group  did  not  go  hand  in  hand  with  the  pentagonal 
group  in  the  Senate  or  with  the  angle  formed  by  the  League 
for  Social  Defense,  founded  by  Sefiores  Jorge  Vera  Estanol 
and  Alberto  Garcia  Granados. 

Close  observation  confirmed  the  suspicion  that  a  certain 
undefined  political  affinity  existed  between  members  of  a 
group  that  might  be  called  the  ex-secretarial  party,  com- 
posed of  ex-Secretaries  Calero,  Flores  Magon,  Garcia  Grana- 
dos, Vera  Estanol  and  ex-President  de  la  Barra.  This 
pentagonal  group  of  ex-secretaries,  as  well  as  the  quadri- 
lateral group  of  the  Lower  House,  tore  down  without 
building  up.  They  lost,  instead  of  gaining  popularity,  be- 
cause society  with  its  conservative  instinct  saw  that  if  the 
incompetency  of  Madero  was  leading  the  country  they  knew 
not  where,  the  cleverness  of  these  men  was  leading  it  to 
anarchy.  They  did  not  take  the  trouble  to  organize  a  party, 
or  even  a  faction,  or  to  raise  up  the  "man  of  iron"  who 
would  dominate  the  situation.  Their  program  was  to  tear 
down — tear  down  first  and  last,  until  not  a  shred  of  prestige, 
authority  or  force  should  be  left  to  the  state. 

This  work  of  demolition  on  the  part  of  the  intellectual 
parliamentarians  was  inspired  by  contempt.  The  work  of 
demolition  inspired  by  hate  was  done  by  the  press — not  by 
the  representative  press  but  the  yellow  press,  represented  by 
El  Pals,  El  Mariana,  El  Herald  o.  La  Tribuna  and  a  host 
of  unimportant  comic  papers  of  the  coarser  type.  Some 
stooped  so  low  as  to  represent  the  President's  wife  as  a  dog, 
always  close  to  her  husband's  side. 


1 86      WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT   MEXICO 

Senor  Fernandez  Giiell,  a  confirmed  Maderista,  wrote, 
referring  to  the  tactics  pursued  by  Sanchez  Santos,  the  edi- 
tor of  El  Pats,  against  Gustavo  Madero,  whom  he  nicknamed 
"Ojo  parado"  (Dead  eye),  because  of  a  physical  defect: 
"Sanchez  Santos  persecuted  him  with  implacable  rage,  even 
beyond  the  grave.  He  is  responsible  for  his  tragic  end,  be- 
cause the  cruel  and  bloody  epithets  which  he  directed  against 
him,  and  which  awakened  the  fury  of  his  murderers,  quivered 
like  poisoned  arrows  in  the  inanimate  body  of  the  unhappy 
Gustavo."  i 

He  also  said:  "Senor  Madero  holds  as  a  governmental 
principle  that  the  'press  can  only  be  fought  with  the  press,' 
but  the  mendacious  audacity  of  the  editors  of  Multicolor 
reached  such  a  point  that  the  President,  taking  into  consid- 
eration that  they  were  foreigners,  resolved  to  have  recourse 
to  the  Thirty-third  Article  of  the  Mexican  Constitution  and 
expel  them  from  the  country."  2 

Those  who  read  these  newspapers,  whose  flaming  words 
were  intended  to  electrify  the  masses  and  arouse  their  basest 
passions,  whose  route  of  circulation  was  marked  by  a  fiery 
trail,  whose  incendiary  opinions  were  everywhere  discussed, 
will  be  my  witnesses  that  the  doctrine  preached  by  this 
anarchistic  press  was  regicide. 

It  mattered  little  to  such  a  press  that  Zapata  was  a  ban- 
dit, he  must  be  eulogized,  his  crimes  must  be  ennobled,  his 
exploits  made  to  dazzle  and  his  personality  deified  in  the 
eyes  of  the  masses.  The  same  course  was  followed  with 
Inez  Salazar,  Campa,  Pablo  Lavin  and  also  with  Cheche 
Campos,  who  was  acclaimed  as  one  of  the  greatest  reform- 
ers the  world  had  ever  seen  because  he  laid  waste  the  entire 
state  of  Durango,  boasting  that  he  had  applied  the  torch 

1 R.  Fernandez  Giiell,  Episodios  de  la  Re<voluci6n  Mexicana, 
p.  170. 

2  Idem,  p.  144 


MADERISM  187 

with  his  own  hand  to  seventy-four  plantations.  All  these 
monsters  were  declared  to  be  good,  capable  of  governing, 
the  true  democrats  for  whom  the  country  had  been  sighing, 
the  enlightened  guides  who  were  to  conduct  the  people  along 
the  road  of  duty  and  constitutionalism.  Madero  alone  was 
evil.  He  was  a  reptile  which,  according  to  the  advice  of 
El  Heraldo,  ought  to  be  stepped  upon.  He  should  be  over- 
thrown, said  La  Tribuna;  cast  out  at  once,  said  El  Mariana. 
It  was  a  savage  campaign  in  the  interests  of  regicide. 

The  revolution  had  added  two  more  great  principles  to 
its  code,  and  any  honest,  intelligent  man  could  read  on 
its  unfurled  banner:  "Vengeance,  pillage,  regicide,  anarchy!" 

It  was  known  in  Mexico  that  the  Morelos  campaign  was 
a  school  of  disloyalty,  cowardice,  pillage,  disorganization  and 
brigandage  for  the  army.  It  was  even  believed  that,  as  in 
times  past,  it  would  desert  at  the  voice  of  a  leader,  al- 
though it  had  proved  when  Felix  Diaz  revolted  at  Vera 
Cruz  that  it  would  not  accept  him  for  its  leader.  It 
had  also  proved  that  General  Reyes  no  longer  appealed  to 
it,  that  he  did  not  inspire  it  with  enthusiasm  or  respect,  and 
that  it  would  not  at  his  command  desert  its  chief.  It 
was  believed  that  this  loyalty  was  accidental;  that  it  was 
due  to  the  lack  of  a  leader,  whom  the  press  was  either  un- 
willing or  unable  to  supply  in  its  efforts  to  overthrow  Ma- 
dero. Realizing  their  unpopularity,  Reyes,  Diaz  and  Mon- 
dragon  understood  that  it  would  be  impossible  for  them  to 
launch  a  revolution  outside  the  capital.  Reyes  and  Diaz 
felt  that  they  would  be  scorned  by  the  public  and  the  army, 
as  had  already  been  the  case,  and  Mondragon  knew  that  he 
was  unpopular  in  both  civil  and  military  circles.  There  was 
only  one  means  by  which  these  leaders — more  unpopular 
than  the  unpopular  Madero  himself — could  overthrow  him, 
and  that  was  recourse  to  a  coup  de  main.  This  does  not 
require  popularity  but  only  iniquity,  and  perhaps  cowardice, 
to  effect.  The  coup  de  main  of  an  unpopular  leader  against 


1 88      WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT   MEXICO 

an  unpopular  ruler  necessitates  the  assassination  of  the  latter. 
Otherwise  he  will  attempt  to  reestablish  himself,  supported 
by  the  people,  who  are  horrified  at  the  triumph  of  the  un- 
scrupulous aspirant.  The  murder  of  Madero  and  Pino 
Suarez  was  the  first  of  the  perfectly  logical  necessities  that 
confronted  the  ambitious  generals,  resolved  to  triumph  at 
any  cost.  On  the  other  hand,  as  this  regicide  seemed  to  be 
demanded  as  a  social  measure  by  the  degenerates,  voiced  in 
sinister  tones  by  all  Madero's  enemies  in  the  press,  it  fell 
to  the  lot  of  the  politically  depraved  leaders  to  create  an 
opinion  in  favor  of  a  government  of  regicides,  forgetting, 
as  history  has  proved,  that  regicide  is  punished  with  death, 
even  though  society  benefits  by  the  crime. 

The  last  touch  of  perfidy  was  added  to  the  coup  of  Feb- 
ruary 9,  1913,  by  the  complicity  in  the  plot  of  the  stu- 
dents of  the  preparatory  military  school.  Never  in  Mex- 
ico's worst  days,  in  her  darkest  hours  of  iniquity,  had  it  come 
to  pass  that  children  and  youths  had  been  led  along  the 
murky  ways  of  treason  and  taught  to  soak  their  supposedly 
innocent  hands  in  blood — the  blood  which  flowed  in  the  most 
detestable  regicide  in  the  history  of  Latin-America.  When 
unformed  youths  lend  themselves  to  the  most  horrible  of  all 
social  crimes  through  cupidity,  ambition  or  any  other  mo- 
tive, the  symptoms  of  a  corroding  social  moral  leprosy  are 
evident.  The  day  of  reckoning  cannot  be  far  off. 

The  anarchic  state  of  Madero's  Government,  the  im- 
potence of  the  Mexican  intelligence  to  measure  accurately 
the  unspeakable  condition  of  the  country,  the  inability  of 
the  national  corpse  to  feel  any  patriotic  sentiments,  the  utter 
oblivion  to  all  the  duties  of  civilization,  betokened  the  arrival 
of  the  hour.  The  death-knell  had  sounded,  and  it  was  time 
for  the  "man  of  iron"  to  arise,  to  spill  blood — much  blood, 
the  blood  of  miscreants,  not  that  of  innocent  people,  not  that 
of  Madero.  Madero  was  not  evil;  his  only  defect  was  his 
mania,  and  even  that  was  harmless. 


PART  THIRD 

THE    POLITICAL  AND    HISTORICAL   INDICT- 
MENT OF  PRESIDENT  WILSON  IN  THE 
MEXICAN  CASE 


CHAPTER  I 

THE    FIRST    INSTALLMENT   OF   LIES   AC- 
CEPTED   BY    PRESIDENT    WILSON 

THE    FAILURE   OF   THE   "dVIS   ROMANUS    SUM"   CLAIM 

A  FEW  days  after  General  Huerta  rose  to  power  on 
the  stepping-stones  of  infamous  deed  and  slain  men, 
and    overrode    the    aspirations   of    the    conservative 
classes,    of    property   interests,    and   of    sublime   sentiments, 
and  the  hopes  of  law  and  order  expressed  by  natives  and 
foreigners  in  Mexico,   Mr.  Wilson,  with  the  prestige  that 
his  office  and  the  greatness  of  his  country  conferred  on  him, 
stepped  out  as  the  arbiter  of  the  affairs  of  the   Mexican 
Government  and  those  of  other  Latin  nations  in  the  New 
World. 

The  wave  of  indignation  that  surged  over  the  American 
people,  as  well  as  other  civilized  and  even  barbarous  nations, 
at  the  news  of  the  assassination  of  the  President  and  Vice- 
President  of  Mexico  enveloped  Mr.  Wilson  as  he  took 
his  seat  in  the  presidential  chair.  The  horror  manifested 
throughout  the  world  at  the  stupendous  crime  of  Mexican 
militarism  proves  that  nations  are  bound  together  by  invisi- 
ble currents  of  morality  and  good  fellowship  as  well  as  by 
the  steel  cables  with  which  science  has  bound  them  together 
in  reality,  and  that  this  union  is  drawing  mankind  closer 
and  closer  together.  Mr.  Wilson,  interpreting  the  senti- 
ments of  one  hundred  millions  of  his  compatriots,  not  as  a 
statesman  but  as  a  plain  American  citizen,  carried  into  the 

189 


190      WHOLE   TRUTH    ABOUT    MEXICO 

international  political  arena  a  current  of  false  sentiment. 
According  to  the  law  that  governs  the  mutual  friendship 
and  interests  of  sovereign  nations  enjoying  freedom  and  in- 
dependence, personality  is  represented  by  the  State,  and  this 
cannot  be  a  murderer  or  a  thief,  or  even  appear  in  the  role 
of  a  delinquent.  To  Mr.  Wilson,  under  the  rules  pre- 
scribed by  international  law,  Huerta  did  not  exist;  Mexico 
alone  existed,  and  only  the  Mexicans  were  competent  to 
pass  judgment  upon  the  official  or  private  conduct  of  their 
Executive  as  the  basis  for  political  action.  As  the  President 
of  the  United  States,  Mr.  Wilson  had  the  right  to  judge 
and  condemn  Huerta's  crime  privately,  never  to  act  upon  it 
in  his  official  capacity,  unless  Huerta's  action  bore  directly 
or  indirectly  on  the  interests  of  the  America  people. 

Mr.  Wilson's  denunciations  of  Huerta,  high-minded  but 
indiscreet,  revealed  also  the  astounding  basis  of  his  new 
policy  toward  the  Latin-American  nations.  He  stepped 
forth  as  the  declared  enemy  of  the  "almighty  dollar  policy" 
which  had  caused  so  much  hatred  and  ill-will  against  the 
United  States  Government  in  all  Latin-American  countries. 
The  press  of  these  countries  acclaimed  him.  Here,  at  last, 
was  the  just  man,  not  the  mercenary  man  of  the  cursed 
"almighty  dollar  policy."  He  was  the  twentieth-century 
reincarnation  of  Benjamin  Franklin,  perfuming  with  his 
benevolence  and  virtue  the  foreign  policy  of  the  United 
States,  everywhere  considered  pestiferous  in  so  far  as 
its  relations  with  weak  Latin-American  nations  were  con- 
cerned. Mr.  Woodrow  Wilson  must  be  gifted  with  rare 
imagination,  because  he  instantly  linked  Huerta's  detestable 
crimes  with  the  Hebraic  crimes  perpetrated  in  the  campaign 
of  the  almighty  dollar.  This  dollar-campaign  could  not  pos- 
sibly be  carried  on  without  the  aid  of  the  corrupt  Latin- 
American  rulers;  and  the  alliance  of  the  moneyed  Creole 
and  mestizo  elements  and  the  moneyed  Anglo-Saxon  inter- 
ests was  indispensable.  Mr.  Wilson,  looking  through  cast- 


THE   FIRST   INSTALLMENT  OF  LIES     191 

iron  lenses,  was  gifted  with  clear  vision  with  regard  to  the 
Mexican  situation.  Huerta  was  simply  the  bloody  and 
ferocious  agent  of  the  landowners,  who  had  kept  eighty-five 
per  cent  of  the  Mexican  people  in  misery,  and  of  the  per- 
verted Creoles,  in  infamous  alliance  with  the  magnates  of 
Wall  Street,  sustaining  their  plutocratic  state  through  the 
sweat  of  the  brow  of  a  wretched  people.  The  Huerta  case 
was  nothing  more  than  the  horrible,  unethical  case  of  the 
almighty  dollar. 

Mr.  Wilson's  proclamation  of  his  future  policy  was  ap- 
plauded far  and  wide.  The  Frankfort  Gazette  on  April 
6,  1914,  said,  referring  to  Mr.  Wilson:  "This  idealist's 
place  is  in  the  political  world,  and  we  might  well  consider 
ourselves  fortunate  if  we  had  at  the  head  of  the  German 
Government  an  idealist  of  such  strong  will  and  progressive 
tendencies  as  Mr.  Wilson." 

Without  entering  into  a  discussion  of  the  aspirations  for 
Germany  here  expressed  by  The  Frankfort  Gazette,  I  am 
sure  that  the  idealist  it  wished  to  have  at  the  head  of  the 
German  Government  would  be  a  German  idealist,  thor- 
oughly acquainted  with  every  department  of  German  life, 
from  whom  none  of  its  secrets  would  be  withheld.  I  can- 
not believe  that  The  Frankfort  Gazette  wished  to  put  a 
French,  Spanish,  Russian,  Brazilian  or  Japanese  idealist  at 
the  head  of  the  German  Government.  The  Mexicans,  even 
admitting  the  possibility  of  an  idealistic  government,  cannot 
wish  that  this  idealist  should  be  an  estimable  President  of 
the  United  States. 

Mr.  Hamilton  Fyfe  in  his  interesting  book  has  written  a 
great  truth.  "Both  President  Wilson  and  Mr.  Bryan  have 
replied  to  repeated  representations  from  Americans  in  Mex- 
ico that  their  policy  does  not  cover  the  protection  of  Ameri- 
can business  interests.  In  August  they  went  so  far  as  to 
advise  all  Americans  in  disturbed  areas  to  leave  the  country. 
That  advice  was  endorsed  by  the  mass  of  American  people, 


192      WHOLE   TRUTH    ABOUT    MEXICO 

who  said:  'They  went  there  of  their  own  accord.  They 
took  a  risk  and  they  must  put  up  with  the  consequences/  a 
vivid  illustration  of  the  weakness  of  national  spirit  in  the 
United  States."1 

Such  a  startling  declaration  puts  an  end  to  all  interna- 
tional law,  to  the  binding  force  of  treaties,  to  the  Consti- 
tution of  the  United  States,  and  even  to  civilization's  en- 
nobling influence. 

Until  the  advent  of  Mr.  Wilson  the  claim  to  protection 
of  the  American  citizen  in  Mexico,  as  in  all  Latin-America, 
and  we  might  even  say  all  over  the  world,  was  the  "Civis 
romanus  sum"  of  the  twentieth  century.  It  was  known  that 
the  United  States  Government  was  intractable,  as  the  English 
Government  had  always  been,  especially  under  the  ministry 
of  Lord  Palmerston,  when  it  came  to  making  the  slightest 
concession  with  regard  to  the  rights  of  its  citizens  in  foreign 
countries.  It  mattered  not  if  that  citizen  were  a  working- 
man  or  a  beggar,  the  Stars  and  Stripes  protected  the  sons 
of  Washington  with  equal  impartiality. 

Since  the  promulgation  of  Mr.  Wilson's  incomprehensible 
policy  a  marked  indifference  has  been  noted  in  Latin-Ameri- 
can countries  with  regard  to  the  fulfillment  of  obligations 
in  this  regard,  which  were  known  by  heart  by  people  and 
Government  alike.  In  Mexico,  especially  at  the  present 
time,  there  is  no  difference  between  the  status  of  an  American 
citizen  and  that  of  a  Chinaman,  whom  the  rabble  drags 
around  by  the  cue,  utterly  indifferent  as  to  what  the  Em- 
peror Yuan-Shi-Kai  may  think  or  say.  There  can  be  no 
doubt  that  Mr.  Wilson,  because  of  his  leaning  to  the  ideal 
of  universal  democracy,  has  decided  to  do  away  with  the 
"Civis  romanus  sum"  attitude  of  the  American  citizen,  and 
has  been  applauded  by  the  fifty  or  more  million  Latin- 
Americans  who  for  one  hundred  years  have  felt  humiliated 
by  this  irritating  international  privilege. 
1  Hamilton  Fyfe,  The  Real  Mexico,  pp.  132,  133. 


THE   FIRST  INSTALLMENT  OF  LIES     193 

PORFIRIO     DIAZ'S     DOCTRINE     REGARDING     MEN     OF     AFFAIRS 

At  first  sight  Mr.  Wilson's  doctrine  of  non-support  of 
American  claims  against  Latin-American  countries  emanat- 
ing from  business  sources,  appears  just  and  an  act  of  repara- 
tion to  countries  that  have  been  so  arrantly  offended  by 
the  "almighty  dollar  policy."  Closely  examined,  this  doc- 
trine is  seen  to  be  highly  prejudicial  to  all  the  nations  it  aims 
to  protect,  above  all  to  Mexico. 

Mexico  is  unquestionably  a  rich  country,  but  this  wealth 
cannot  be  developed  without  the  assistance  of  immense  for- 
eign capital.  It  is  one  thing  to  graze  large  herds  in  the 
fertile  plains  of  Argentine  and  Uruguay;  to  sow  wheat  in 
the  rich  Pampa  soil;  to  build  railroads  on  smooth  plains;  to 
carry  on  commerce  with  the  greatest  navigable  rivers  of  the 
world  at  one's  command;  but  it  is  quite  another  thing  to 
work  mines  at  a  depth  of  from  800  to  1,000  meters;  to  drive 
petroleum  wells  of  more  or  less  the  same  depth;  to  build 
railroads  in  a  mountainous  country;  to  carry  on  commerce 
without  rivers;  to  be  obliged,  in  order  to  cultivate  virgin 
lands,  to  undertake  the  installation  of  very  costly  irrigation 
plants;  and  to  be  furthermore  obliged,  in  order  to  feed  a 
starving  population,  to  invest  untold  millions  to  restore  to 
exhausted  lands  the  marvellous  fertility  they  formerly  pos- 
sessed. Mexico,  without  the  help  of  an  extensive  foreign 
capital,  has  before  her  only  certain  extinction  by  anarchy. 
This  would  have  happened  in  1880,  if  American  capital 
had  not  flowed  into  the  country  and  saved  the  nation  from 
the  fate  that  awaited  it. 

This  point  established,  it  is  necessary  to  consider  care- 
fully the  following:  In  the  memorable  debate  which  took 
place  in  December,  1893,  for  the  Constitutional  amend- 
ment which  should  place  the  judiciary  on  an  independ- 
ent footing,  Senor  Justo  Sierra  and  I  were  the  strongest 
speakers  in  favor  of  the  measure.  It  passed  the  House,  but 


194      WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT    MEXICO 

General  Diaz  prevented  our  salutary  reform  project  from 
being  discussed  in  the  Senate.  As  the  dictator  had  solemnly 
promised  that  he  would  leave  Congress  perfectly  free  in 
this  matter,  and  would  abide  by  its  decision  whatever  it 
might  be,  his  final  action  greatly  incensed  us.  Knowing 
this,  he  called  a  meeting  which  Senores  Rosendo  Pineda, 
Joaquin  Casasus,  Justo  Sierra  and  I  attended.  General 
Diaz  said:  "I  owe  you  an  explanation.  I  am  convinced 
that  I  have  been  able  to  govern  successfully,  to  preserve 
peace  and  to  secure  some  progress  for  Mexico,  because  I 
have  availed  myself  of  the  help  of  foreign  capital.  Its  rep- 
resentatives have  many  enemies  in  the  country,  and  their 
worst  enemies  are  to  be  found  in  our  courts,  because  they 
are  venal,  or  because  they  have  a  misconceived  notion  of 
patriotism.  Innumerable  judges  have  come  to  tell  me  that, 
owing  to  their  intense  patriotism,  they  find  it  impossible  to 
pass  sentence  in  favor  of  foreigners  or  of  foreign  companies, 
when  these  are  contending  against  Mexican  interests.  I  have 
received  complaints  from  the  United  States  Ambassador  of 
the  demands  made  upon  foreign  companies  by  judges,  clerks, 
lawyers,  pettifoggers,  newspaper  men,  state  governors  and 
their  favorites;  all  this  mass  of  depraved  traffickers  bent  on 
getting  money  out  of  every  concern  they  know  to  be  rich 
enough  to  make  worth  while,  a  sentence  rendered  in  their 
favor. 

"After  trying  for  eight  years  by  every  possible  means  at 
my  command  to  put  an  end  to  this  deplorable  state  of  affairs, 
I  have  come  to  the  conclusion  that  the  only  way  that  lies 
open  to  me  is  the  one  I  have  adopted.  Whenever  an  im- 
portant lawsuit  comes  up  in  the  courts  in  which  the  interests 
of  a  foreign  company  are  concerned,  I  put  it  into  the 
hands  of  honorable  and  distinguished  lawyers,  perhaps  the 
most  competent  and  intelligent  in  Mexico,  such  as  Senores 
Ignacio  Luis  Vallarta,  Luis  Mendez,  Emilio  Velazco, 
Emilio  Pardo,  Manuel  Inda  and  Rafael  Donde.  These 


THE   FIRST  INSTALLMENT  OF   LIES     195 

gentlemen,  without  forming  a  special  commission,  in  groups 
of  two  or  three — or  more,  if  necessary — review  the  judicial 
proceedings  of  the  lower  court  while  the  appeal  in  the  higher 
court  is  still  pending.  If  the  judges  of  the  Courts  of  First 
Instance,  which  I  have  left  perfectly  free,  and  the  Court  of 
Appeal,  which  I  have  also  left  free  to  pass  sentence,  give 
an  unjust  verdict  according  to  the  opinion  of  my  consulting 
lawyers,  I  empower  my  friends  in  the  Supreme  Court  to 
use  my  name  in  order  that  justice  may  be  done,  if  they  see 
that  the  Supreme  Court  is  going  to  give  an  unjust  verdict. 

"I  am  convinced  that  if  foreign  capitalists  do  not  find  in 
Mexico  assured  guarantees  that  they  will  he  protected 
against  the  machinations  of  a  certain  element,  they  will  flee, 
and  with  them  the  peace  and  well-being  of  the  country." 

We  accepted  General  Diaz's  explanation,  convinced  that, 
in  the  event  that  Mexico  in  the  natural  evolution  of  its 
political  life  should  enter  into  the  broader  highways  of  a 
free  government,  the  first  thing  capitalists  would  do  would 
be  to  withdraw  from  the  country,  if  they  were  not  sure  of 
being  energetically  upheld  by  their  home  governments,  ac- 
cording to  the  usages  of  international  law  and  the  stipula- 
tions of  treaties. 

Neither  the  foreign  working-man,  nor  the  foreign  colo- 
nists, the  foreign  professional  man,  nor  the  foreign  capital- 
ist has  absolute  confidence  even  to-day  in  Latin-American 
courts.  In  Latin-American  countries  which  are  under  the 
law  of  dictatorships,  they  trust  only  dictators  of  the  stamp 
of  General  Diaz,  not  on  that  account,  however,  ceasing  to 
avail  themselves  of  the  protection  of  international  law  and 
treaty  rights.  Under  the  ordinary  dictators,  or  the  dema- 
gogues who  take  their  place  when  anarchy  reigns,  the  courts 
inspire  terror  instead  of  confidence,  as  the  instigators  of 
nefarious  practices  rather  than  of  justice. 

Patriotism  is  differently  interpreted.  My  interpretation 
is  that  since  it  is  clear  that  without  the  support  of  foreign 


1 96      WHOLE   TRUTH    ABOUT    MEXICO 

capital  Mexico  would  have  been  ruined  even  if  there  had 
been  no  revolution,  patriotism  demands  that  foreign  capital 
should  have  support  under  international  law  and  treaty 
rights.  Mr.  Wilson's  doctrine  of  denying  support  to  all 
claims  emanating  from  business  interests  makes  this  impos- 
sible. Every  Latin-American  nation  which  desires  and 
needs  to  develop  its  national  resources  quickly  by  means  of 
foreign  capital  ought  to  have  a  government  which  encour- 
ages clean  business.  It  ought  to  be  ready  to  open  its  doors 
and  give  all  manner  of  guarantees,  compatible  with  its 
dignity,  and  with  its  own  rights  clearly  established,  to  every 
business  man  who  offers  to  place  his  capital  at  the  disposi- 
tion of  the  country  upon  a  legitimate  business  footing.  If 
Mr.  Wilson's  doctrine  consisted  in  refusing  to  support 
American  claims  in  illegitimate  business  transactions,  his 
policy  would  be  laudable  as  well  as  scientific.  But  to  pro- 
claim that  his  administration  will  not  support  any  claim 
emanating  from  business  interests  is  equivalent  to  saying: 
"I  forbid  all  American  capitalists  to  invest  money  in  Mex- 
ico under  pain  of  denying  them  the  protection  of  interna- 
tional law  and  treaty  rights." 

I  believe  I  have  demonstrated  that  the  Wilson  doctrine  is 
as  prejudicial  to  Mexico  as  to  the  United  States. 

PRESIDENT   WILSON    FANS   THE    BOXER   SENTIMENT 

This  Wilson  doctrine  was  enthusiastically  taken  up  by 
the  revolutionary  press  and  writers,  who  redoubled  the  fury 
of  their  bugle  call,  summoning  all  to  take  up  arms  in  the 
Boxer  revolution.  The  nefarious  revolutionary  gospel  of 
the  day  was:  "So  true  is  it  that  the  Yankee  capitalists  are 
nothing  more  than  a  crafty  set  of  thieves  preying  upon  the 
Mexican  people,  that  even  Mr.  Wilson,  their  President,  has 
announced  that  they  need  not  count  upon  the  support  of 
their  Government  for  anything.  And  being  the  great  Wil- 
son, the  immortal  Wilson,  the  epic  Wilson,  all  justice  and 


THE   FIRST   INSTALLMENT  OF   LIES     197 

truth,  inflamed  with  liberty  and  charity,  he  could  not  have 
denied  a  rightful  claim  to  the  Yankee  capitalists;  conse- 
quently, his  determination  not  to  support  them  is  equivalent 
to  denouncing  them  before  the  world  as  financial  pirates 
and  corruptors  of  Latin-American  governments,  worthy  of 
punishment  instead  of  protection.  People  raise  a  statue 
to  Wilson,  and  crown  it  with  flowers  at  least  four  times  a 
year  at  the  change  of  the  seasons !"  x 

I  censure  the  "almighty  dollar  policy"  as  an  honest  man, 
but  not  as  a  Mexican,  because  in  Mexico  there  has  been  no 
such  policy.  Its  existence  has  been  invented  by  demagogic 
agitators  and  pretentious  and  small-minded  students. 

Foreign  capital,  as  a  whole,  invested  in  Mexico,  accord- 
ing to  the  figures  of  the  Mexican  official  statistics,  is  as 
follows : 

Railways  constructed  with  foreign  capital 600,000,000  pesos 

Foreign  capital  invested  in  mines 587,000,000  " 

Metallurgic  works  and  cyanidation  plants 70,000,000  " 

Development  of  petroleum   200,000,000  " 

Necaxa    works,    electric    lighting    and    electric 

motor   power  100,000,000  " 

Invested  in  banks   76,000,000  " 

Textile  industries    35,000,000  " 

Electric     companies     furnishing     lighting     and 

motor  power  throughout  the  Republic 32,000,000  " 

Loaned  to  the   Caja  de  Prestamos  for  the  pro- 
motion of  agricultural  and  irrigation  works  50,000,000  " 

Federal  public  debt   485,000,000  " 

State  public  debt 7,000,000  " 

Invested  in  foreign  commerce   476,000,000  " 


Total    2,691,000,000  pesos 

I  am  not  taking  into  account  the  foreign  capital  invested 
in  extensive  cattle-raising  in  Sonora,  Chihuahua,  Durango 
and  Coahuila;  in  the  rubber  industry  in  these  same  states 

1  Argumento  de  Proclam*  revolucionrio,  Durango,  Agosto  de 
W3- 


ig8      WHOLE   TRUTH    ABOUT    MEXICO 

and  in  those  of  Zacatecas  and  San  Luis  Potosi ;  in  the  timber 
lands  of  Chihuahua;  in  the  sugar-cane  plantations  in  Vera 
Cruz,  the  territory  of  Tepic  and  the  Isthmus  of  Tehuan- 
tepec;  or,  lastly,  the  coffee  plantations  and  the  rubber  tree 
nurseries  in  the  states  of  Chiapas,  Vera  Cruz  and  Oaxaca. 

I  ask,  Has  this  or  any  part  of  it  contributed  to  the  ruin 
of  Mexico?  Have  the  600,000,000  pesos  invested  in  rail- 
roads been  employed  to  rob  the  Mexican  people?  It  has 
been  said  that  Mexico  has  given  an  average  of  $4,250  gold 
per  kilometer  for  railroad  construction  in  a  depopulated 
country  where  only  twenty  per  cent  of  the  people  require 
transportation.  Mr.  Wilson  knows  that  the  Mexican  Gov- 
ernment, in  order  to  avert  the  failure  of  the  great  railway 
lines,  gave  in  exchange  for  the  control  of  these  the  guarantee 
of  an  annual  four  per  cent  dividend  on  a  smaller  capital  than 
that  actually  invested.  Is  this  what  is  called  robbing  the 
Mexican  people,  and  does  it  warrant  Mr.  Wilson  in  de- 
nouncing the  foreign  stockholders  to  the  world  as  a  set  of 
knaves  ? 

In  the  mining  world  the  foreign  capital  is  estimated  at 
587,000,000  pesos,  which,  plus  the  capital  invested  in  the 
metallurgic  works,  equals  657,000,000  pesos.  Those  ac- 
quainted with  mining  affairs  know  that  in  mining,  taken  as 
a  whole,  the  net  profit  is  not  more  than  fifteen  per  cent  on 
the  gross  product.  Taking  this  figure  as  a  basis,  a  net  profit 
of  26,000,000  pesos  is  obtained,  which  on  a  capital  of  657,- 
000,000  pesos,  leaves  an  annual  profit  of  barely  four  per 
cent  on  the  capital  invested.  In  1877,  before  the  investment 
of  foreign  capital  on  a  large  scale  in  Mexican  mines,  only 
22,000  workmen  were  employed  in  the  mining  industry; 
114,000  men  were  employed  at  a  good  daily  wage  in  1910. 
This  is  the  so-called  ruin  that  foreign  capital  has  produced 
in  Mexico.  The  Necaxa  concession  was  not  injurious  to 
the  country,  because  the  only  favor  conceded  was  exemption 
from  the  ruinous  taxes  that  might  have  been  imposed.  The 


THE   FIRST   INSTALLMENT   OF   LIES     199 

Necaxa  motor  power  is  utilized  by  various  electric  light  and 
electric  power  plants,  especially  at  El  Oro,  a  mining  town 
where  15,000  men  were  employed. 

The  foreign  capital  invested  in  Government  bonds  can- 
not have  robbed  the  nation,  because  the  bonds  were  bought 
almost  at  par,  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  the  annual  in- 
terest is  only  from  four  to  five  per  cent.  The  extensive  for- 
eign capital  invested  in  trade  operates  upon  exactly  the  same 
basis  as  the  national  capital,  without  special  privileges  or  con- 
cessions; therefore,  it  is  ridiculous,  if  they  are  on  an  equal 
footing,  to  say  that  in  this  respect  the  Mexican  people  are 
being  robbed.  It  is  only  when  we  come  to  the  petroleum 
concessions  that  a  wrong  can  be  said  to  have  been  done  to 
the  Mexican  people.  In  these  concessions  exemption  from 
export  duty  was  granted,  and,  as  by  its  very  nature  almost 
all  of  it  is  exported,  and  as  its  production  does  not  require 
a  large  force,  the  people  derived  very  little  benefit  from  the 
exploitation  of  this  portion  of  their  national  wealth.  But 
this  concession  was  unconstitutional  and  could  have  been 
revoked  from  the  moment  that  the  Government  that  granted 
it  was  overthrown.  All  difficulties  could  have  been  com- 
promised, and  a  new  contract  drawn  up  by  which  the  petro- 
leum companies  would  have  been  obliged  to  pay  an  equitable 
tax. 

I  do  not  think  it  necessary  to  continue  the  analysis  of  these 
specific  charges.  Those  I  have  particularly  noted  will  suffice 
for  Mr.  Wilson's  consideration  and  that  of  the  American 
public.  It  seems  sufficient  to  me  to  close  the  review  of  the 
legitimate  business  enterprises  operating  in  Mexico  at  the 
time  the  revolution  broke  out  by  inviting  the  revolutionary 
writers  to  show  in  what  way  the  enterprises  I  have  men- 
tioned have  been  guilty  of  defrauding  the  Mexican  people. 
I,  moreover,  defy  the  whole  world  to  show  me  where,  out- 
side the  cases  I  have  mentioned,  they  can  point  out  real  or 
probable  cases  of  injustice  toward  the  Mexican  people. 


200      WHOLE   TRUTH    ABOUT    MEXICO 

It  is  undeniable  that  during  the  administration  of  Gen- 
eral Diaz  there  were  shady  business  transactions  of  greater 
or  lesser  gravity;  but  they  were  not  allied  with  foreign  en- 
terprises, nor  were  they  disadvantageous  to  the  country.  The 
dirty  business  transactions  may  be  narrowed  down  to  seven 
Spaniards  who  took  to  Mexico  no  other  capital  than  their 
determination  to  build  up  fortunes  by  any  and  all  possible 
means.  These  men  were  friends  of  President  Manuel  Gon- 
zalez and  of  President  Porfirio  Diaz.  I  know  of  only  three 
Americans  who  have  amassed  great  fortunes  in  Mexico.  One 
possessed  no  capital  at  all;  the  other  two  had  small  amounts 
to  invest.  I  do  not  mention  their  names  because  it  is  not  my 
intention  in  writing  this  book  to  cause  any  one  trouble  out 
of  proportion  to  his  responsibilities.  I  am  writing  to  defend 
my  country  by  stating  facts,  not  to  laud  my  friends,  or  to 
take  revenge  on  my  enemies  or  molest  neutrals. 

It  is  not,  however,  to  be  taken  for  granted  that  because 
seven  Spaniards  were  favorites  of  the  dictator  and  managed 
to  amass  fortunes  illegitimately,  that  the  Spanish  colony  in 
Mexico,  numbering  about  forty  thousand,  almost  all  hon- 
orable, useful,  hard-working  and  estimable  for  many  reasons, 
should  be  hated,  persecuted,  declared  criminal  and  deserv- 
ing of  extermination;  any  more  than  the  useful,  hard-work- 
ing American  colony,  the  promoters  of  civilization,  numbering 
about  forty  thousand,  should  be  execrated.  The  Span- 
iards were  the  creators  of  fortunes  for  the  Mexican  families; 
without  them  Mexico  would  certainly  have  been  a  nation  of 
bureaucrats,  of  unfortunate  employees  of  private  or  foreign 
concerns,  of  working-men,  day-laborers,  beggars  and  pick- 
pockets. 

For  the  successful  working  out  of  the  "almighty  dollar 
policy,"  the  concurrence  of  the  American  financier  of  the 
piratical  type  and  the  corrupt  Mexican  public  official  is 
needed.  President  Wilson  apparently  does  not  know  that 


THE   FIRST   INSTALLMENT  OF  LIES    201 

Senor  Limantour,  who  for  eighteen  years  was  the  absolute 
dictator  of  Mexico's  financial  policy,  was  the  avowed  enemy 
of  American  monopolies,  and  consistently  opposed  to  per- 
mitting American  capital,  however  beneficial  its  effects,  from 
getting  the  upper  hand  in  the  country,  because  gold  is  always 
a  power,  and  can  sway  in  the  political  field. 

The  American  writer,  Mr.  Edward  I.  Bell,  who  has 
studied  Mexican  affairs  at  first-hand,  says:  "The  Pearson 
concession  was  a  move  approved  by  Limantour  to  prevent 
Standard  Oil  domination.  .  .  .  The  Waters-Pierce  Oil 
Company,  then  a  subsidiary  of  the  Standard  Oil,  had  held  a 
monopoly  of  the  trade  of  Mexico  and  at  the  time  of  the  con- 
cession was  engaged  in  bringing  in  oil  from  the  United  States 
and  selling  twenty-liter  cans  of  good  illuminating  grade  at 
$3.59  Mexican  money,  a  price  equivalent  to  thirty-five  Amer- 
ican cents  a  gallon. 

"If  there  was  one  thing  that  Limantour  objected  to  more 
than  monopoly  in  general,  it  was  American  monop- 
oly. .  .  .Ml 

When  the  Mexican  Government  undertook  to  drain  the 
City  of  Mexico  and  Vera  Cruz,  it  turned  down  many  Amer- 
ican bids  and  awarded  the  contracts  to  a  French  company, 
and  to  the  house  of  Pearson  &  Son,  of  London.  Many 
other  American  propositions  for  all  kinds  of  public  improve- 
ments were  submitted,  and  resulted  in  the  award  to  the 
Pearson  company  of  contracts  valued  at  170,000,000  pesos. 
The  drainage  contracts,  before  the  work  passed  into  the 
hands  of  the  Pearson  company,  had  Jpeen  in  charge  of  an 
English  company,  Read  &  Campbell.  The  installing  of  a 
water  plant  to  supply  the  City  of  Mexico  with  water,  and 
also  the  erection  of  all  the  public  buildings  that  beautify  the 
city,  costing  in  the  neighborhood  of  50,000,000  pesos,  were 
carried  out  under  the  direction  of  the  Government,  only 
Mexican,  French  and  Italian  engineers,  architects  and  work- 

1  Edward  I.  Bell,  The  Political  Shame  of  Mexico^  p.  126. 


202      WHOLE   TRUTH    ABOUT    MEXICO 

men  being  employed.  Limantour  had  no  grudge  against 
Americans,  as  is  clear  from  the  fact  that  he  approved  all  the 
concessions  requested  by  Ambassador  Thompson ;  that  of  the 
Mexican  Southern  Pacific  Railroad,  solicited  by  Mr.  Harri- 
man,  and  the  monopoly  of  office  and  school  supplies  granted 
to  Mosler,  Bowen  &  Cook. 

Limantour  sought  to  keep  the  balance  between  European 
and  American  capital.  He  was  absolutely  incorruptible,  and 
his  designs  in  this  respect,  undoubtedly  founded  upon  pa- 
triotic motives,  are  to  be  applauded. 

What  has  been  said  will  suffice  to  show  that  foreign  enter- 
prises in  Mexico,  more  than  one-half  of  which  represented 
American  interests,  have  operated  almost  without  exception 
honestly,  legitimately  and  thoroughly,  and  that  they  have 
not  only  conferred  benefits  upon  the  Mexican  people,  but 
that  they  saved  them  from  extinction  in  1877.  At  this  time 
the  Government  and  all  intelligent  leaders,  seeing  them- 
selves without  the  support  of  foreign  capital,  had  lost  faith 
in  the  future  of  Mexico. 

Mr.  Wilson's  policy  of  sustaining  the  false  accusations 
made  against  foreign  capital  in  Mexico  unquestionably  served 
to  stimulate  the  Boxer  sentiment.  This  has  been  the  right 
arm  of  the  revolution,  as  Sefior  Carranza  has  confessed  in 
his  interview  with  Senor  Aldo  Baroni,  published  in  the 
Diario  de  la  Marina  of  Havana. 

THE    MONROE   DOCTRINE    A    WAR   DOCTRINE 

As  the  "Mexican  case"  is  closely  bound  up  in  the  Monroe 
Doctrine,  and  as  this  is  complex  and  confused — as  are  all 
doctrines  that  are  extraordinarily  elastic — I  feel  obliged  to 
explain  it  as  I  understand  it  in  order  to  make  my  argument 
absolutely  clear. 

The  basis  of  the  Monroe  Doctrine  is  the  immutable  pro- 
hibition of  the  acquirement  by  any  foreign  powrer  of  territory 


THE   FIRST   INSTALLMENT  OF  LIES    203 

on  the  American  continents  or  in  American  waters.  To  for- 
bid any  nation  to  acquire  territory  in  America  is  equivalent 
to  forbidding  that  nation  to  make  war  upon  any  of  the 
American  nations.  The  rights  of  war  are:  Total  or  partial 
possession  of  the  conquered  territory;  temporary  occupation 
of  the  conquered  territory,  which  may  extend  over  a  long 
period  of  time-;  occupation  of  the  territory  as  a  guarantee  for 
the  payment  of  indemnity  or  the  fulfillment  of  obligations 
stipulated  in  the  treaty  of  peace;  occupation  of  the  territory 
in  order  to  collect  the  war  indemnity,  or  to  press  the  meeting 
of  public  debt  obligations,  when  the  debtor  is  tardy,  or  for 
any  other  reason  declines  to  meet  this  or  other  claims.  In 
times  of  peace  a  power  has  the  right  to  occupy  territory  in 
a  foreign  country  in  order  to  protect  the  lives  or  interests  of 
its  subjects,  threatened  with  annihilation.  Some  interna- 
tional law  writers  have  held  that  a  power  has  the  right  to 
punish  the  crimes  committed  by  rebellious  subjects  of  a  for- 
eign nation  against  its  subjects,  if  the  Government  of  this 
nation  is  impotent  to  suppress  disorder  and  punish  its  own 
rebellious  subjects.  In  order  that  this  punishment  may  be 
administered,  the  temporary  occupation  of  a  part  of  the  of- 
fending nation's  territory  is  unavoidable. 

From  the  foregoing  it  will  be  seen  that  the  Monroe  Doc- 
trine restricts  the  sovereignty  of  all  foreign  nations;  and 
later  it  will  be  seen  that  it  restricts  the  sovereignty  of  all 
American  nations,  except  the  United  States. 

Why  have  the  European  nations  accepted  this  manifest 
restriction  of  their  sovereignty?  Because  all  the  nations  that 
have  accepted  the  Monroe  Doctrine,  in  order  to  preserve 
their  dignity  without  having  to  go  to  war  with  the  United 
States,  have  tacitly  recognized  a  protectorate  exercised  by 
the  United  States  Government  over  all  the  Latin-American 
nations.  But  the  foreign  Powers  cannot  abjure  their  rights 
to  sovereignty  in  this  respect  without  the  protector  assuming 
the  responsibility  before  these  Powers  for  the  offenses  com- 


204      WHOLE   TRUTH    ABOUT    MEXICO 

mitted  by  the  nations  over  which  the  protectorate  is  exer- 
cised. The  Monroe  Doctrine  obliges  the  United  States  to 
answer  for  the  conduct  of  these  nations  to  the  point  of  giving 
absolute  satisfaction  to  the  European  Powers  which  recog- 
nize the  Monroe  Doctrine,  or  of  incurring  the  risk  of  having 
them  declare  war  against  the  United  States  when  the  satis- 
faction is  not  considered  adequate.  This  proves  that  the 
Monroe  Doctrine  is  a  probable  war  doctrine  even  with  the 
nations  that  tacitly  or  expressly  recognize  it.  The  Monroe 
Doctrine  was  the  gauntlet  thrown  down  to  Spain  and  the 
nations  composing  the  Holy  Alliance,  Prussia,  Austria  and 
Russia,  which  they  could  not  take  up  because  they  were  not 
naval  powers  at  the  time  they  were  challenged.  Moreover, 
the  Monroe  Doctrine  was  supported  by  England,  the  first 
naval  power  of  the  world,  which  assured  the  tranquil  ex- 
istence of  the  doctrine  so  long  as  England  and  the  United 
States  were  at  peace.  It  may  be  said  that  the  Monroe  Doc- 
trine has  been  sustained  for  more  than  eighty  years  by  an 
alliance  between  these  two  nations.  Nevertheless,  in  the 
Venezuelan  case,  when  the  United  States  took  a  firm  stand 
against  England,  the  alliance  was  on  the  point  of  being 
broken,  but  the  difficulty  was  surmounted. 

The  European  Powers  have  tacitly  or  expressly  recognized 
the  protectorate  imposed  by  the  United  States  over  Latin- 
American  nations  because  they  could  not  go  to  war  with 
England  and  the  United  States  to  recover  their  rights  as 
military  powers,  either  to  undertake  conquests  or  to  declare 
war  according  to  international  law  and  the  treaties  emanat- 
ing from  it.  It  is  clear  that  should  the  European  Powers, 
either  through  necessity  or  ambition,  make  up  their  minds 
to  go  to  war,  they  will  not  feel  obliged  to  respect  the  pro- 
hibition imposed  by  the  United  States,  but  will  override  the 
Monroe  Doctrine  just  as  soon  as  they  find  themselves  in  a 
position  to  do  so.  The  Monroe  Doctrine,  then,  may  prove 
a  war  doctrine  with  the  European  Powers  or  Japan  at  a 


THE   FIRST   INSTALLMENT  OF  LIES    205 

time  it  is  not  yet  possible  to  fix.  Germany  has  publicly  de- 
clared that  she  does  not  recognize,  nor  will  she  ever  rec- 
ognize, the  Monroe  Doctrine;  and  it  is  practically  certain 
that  if  the  European  war  had  not  taken  up  her  attention, 
she  would,  because  of  her  great  interest  in  Brazil  and  her 
designs  in  Nicaragua,  have  declared  war  against  the  United 
States  if  she  could  have  secured  the  neutrality  of  England. 
If  Germany  crushes  the  power  of  England  in  the  present 
war,  she  will,  with  a  reconstructed  navy,  attack  the  United 
States,  not  only  for  the  purpose  of  destroying  the  Monroe 
Doctrine,  but  for  the  purpose  of  breaking  a  rival  power. 
Rome  would  not  have  stood  the  rival  power  of  Carthage  in 
the  twentieth  century  any  more  than  she  stood  it  two  thou- 
sand and  seventy- two  years  ago.  The  cause  of  the  Allies  is 
the  cause  of  the  United  States,  and  explains  the  unprece- 
dented interest  and  support  given  on  supposedly  neutral 
ground  to  Germany's  enemies. 

Even  if  the  Allies  triumph,  the  Monroe  Doctrine  will 
still  be  in  peril.  England  has  submitted  as  gracefully  as  pos- 
sible to  the  attitude  of  the  United  States  because  she  wished 
to  keep  Canada.  But  England,  once  triumphant,  will  come 
to  recognize  that  the  war  with  Germany  has  transformed 
her  into  what  she  never  dreamed  of  being — a  great  military 
power  in  the  world,  capable  of  raising  four  million  men, 
officered  and  well  trained,  with  an  enormous  train  of  artil- 
lery, all  this  backed  by  a  flourishing  home  industry  capable 
of  keeping  such  a  colossal  force  thoroughly  equipped. 

It  might  be  that  triumphant  France  and  Italy  would  at- 
tempt to  put  an  end  to  the  Monroe  Doctrine;  and  in  that 
case  an  alliance  for  the  purpose  of  getting  possession  of  Nic- 
aragua, or  obtaining  concessions  with  regard  to  the  Canal, 
whether  or  not  the  Nicaraguian  Government  were  willing, 
could  bring  the  Monroe  Doctrine  into  conflict.  I  consider 
it  very  doubtful  whether  the  triumphant  European  Powers 
will  consent  to  the  United  States  possessing  absolute  control 


206      WHOLE   TRUTH    ABOUT    MEXICO 

of  the  waterway  between  the  Atlantic  and  Pacific.  These 
considerations  prove  that,  now  more  than  ever,  the  Monroe 
Doctrine  is  a  war  doctrine. 

Wilson's  doctrine  is  diametrically  opposed  to  the  Monroe 
Doctrine,  in  virtue  of  which  the  United  States  assumes  be- 
fore Europe  and  Japan,  if  the  latter  recognizes  the  doctrine, 
responsibility  for  the  actions  of  the  Latin-American  nations, 
even  when  this  responsibility  is  grave  and  might  lead  to  war. 
The  United  States,  therefore,  in  assuming  this  responsibility, 
accepts  unconditionally  the  rights  of  the  European  Powers 
to  exact  from  the  Latin-American  nations  the  fulfillment  of 
the  precepts  laid  down  by  international  law  and  treaty  stip- 
ulations. As  in  both  these  laws  the  rights  of  all  nations  to 
support  the  claims  of  their  respective  subjects,  whether  they 
emanate  from  business  interests  or  not,  are  expressly  stated, 
it  is  inconceivable  that  Europe  will  submit  to  the  Wilson  doc- 
trine of  non-protection  by  the  American  Government  of 
claims  emanating  from  business  interests. 

The  conflict  between  these  doctrines  might  lead  to  three 
things:  War  between  Europe  and  the  United  States;  the  un- 
conditional surrender  of  the  Monroe  Doctrine;  the  incredi- 
bly humiliating  action  on  the  part  of  the  American  President 
of  giving  protection  to  foreign  claims  from  whatever  source 
they  might  spring,  even  to  taking  up  arms  in  their  defense, 
after  denying  the  same  protection  to  American  citizens  under 
similar  circumstances.  I  cannot  believe  that  the  American 
people  would  go  to  war  with  Mexico,  or  any  other  Latin- 
American  nation,  to  protect  the  interests  of  European  sub- 
jects, when,  rather  than  go  to  war,  they  have  permitted  their 
own  countrymen  to  remain  unprotected.  \ 

After  the  lapse  of  a  year,  Mr.  Wilson  understood  that 
his  "debutante"  political  doctrine  was  untenable,  as,  in  lay- 
ing down  his  program  to  The  Saturday  Evening  Post  rep- 
resentative, he  said:  "Second — No  personal  aggrandizement 
by  American  investors  or  adventurers  or  capitalists,  or  ex- 


THE   FIRST   INSTALLMENT  OF  LIES    207 

ploitation  of  that  country,  will  be  permitted.  Legitimate 
business  interests  that  seek  to  develop  rather  than  exploit 
will  be  encouraged." 

This  declaration  deserves  to  be  applauded,  but  the  Wilson 
doctrine  as  first  promulgated  caused  considerable  damage  to 
both  American  and  Mexican  business  interests. 


THE    PROBLEM 

Should  President  Wilson  have  recognized  the  Huerta 
Government  in  March,  1913? 

Let  us  examine  the  situation  as  it  appeared  in  the  eyes  of 
the  world.  On  one  side  wras  General  Huerta,  usurper,  trai- 
tor, assassin  and  the  representative  of  the  ancient  and  anti- 
patriotic  privileged  classes,  composed  of  debauched  Creoles, 
greedy  landowners,  holding  back  land  indispensable  for  the 
maintenance  of  the  people,  and  dishonest  plutocrats,  all  ene- 
mies of  the  people,  opposed  to  its  moral  and  material  4i^t- 
terment.  On  the  other  side  was  Senor  Venustiano  Car- 
ranza,  a  Constitutionalist,  a  great  and  radical  reformer, 
loyal,  just  and  a  distributor  of  lands  to  the  people. 

Guided  by  appearances,  it  was  not  possible  to  vacillate. 
Every  support  should  be  given  to  Carranza;  every  means 
used  to  defeat  Huerta. 

Let  us  see  what  the  actual  situation  was. 


THE    FIRST    LIE:    THE    USURPATION   OF    HUERTA 

I  have  said  that  in  all  countries  called  free,  except  Eng- 
land, two  political  constitutions  hold  sway,  the  written  and 
the  unwritten.  The  first  is  the  work  of  politicians;  the  sec- 
ond is  the  outgrowth  of  social  usage.  In  Latin-America  the 
political  constitutions  have  been  the  result  of  the  more  or  less 


208      WHOLE   TRUTH    ABOUT    MEXICO 

unreal  visions  that  incessantly  dangle  before  the  imagina- 
tion of  patriots  and  the  creators  of  theoretic  democracies. 

Theories  cannot  be  applied  to  nations;  they  are  eminently 
practical,  not  theoretical.  Life  is  a  fact,  not  a  theory. 

In  countries  where  dictatorships  are  the  rule,  the  political 
constitution  is  simply  ornamental,  and,  consequently,  the 
president  emanating  from  such  a  constitution  is  simply  a 
constitutional  president  of  the  ornamental  type  (a  real  presi- 
dent such  as  Madero,  but  unfit  to  govern),  or  a  dictator  of 
the  proportions  of  General  Porfirio  Diaz,.  As  has  been  said, 
the  unwritten  constitution  of  a  people  emanates  from  its 
racial  traits,  its  history,  its  economic  organism,  its  territory, 
its  education,  its  real  needs,  sufferings  and  aspirations,  and 
the  influence  of  foreign  nations — in  short,  from  social  usage. 
In  Mexico  the  law  prescribed  by  social  usage  was  the  change 
of  government  by  violence  and  treason,  without  recourse  to 
assassination.  Therefore  Madero  was  the  real  usurper  who 
had  violated  the  inexorable  law — which  was  a  law  notwith- 
standing its  atrociousness — by  appearing  as  the  constitutional 
president  in  a  country  where  no  one  was  interested  in  living 
up  to  the  written  constitution,  and  where  he  gave  new  and 
flagrant  examples  of  its  violation.  The  simple  fact  that  a 
president  has  been  legally  elected  is  not  enough  to  make  him 
respected.  He  must  combine  legality  of  conduct,  and  this 
President  Madero  did  not  do.  It  is  not  true  that  the  coup 
of  February  9,  1913,  destroyed  a  democracy.  A  demo- 
cratic government  is  a  government  founded  on  public  opin- 
ion, and  when  such  a  government  loses  its  support,  it  has 
virtually  been  overthrown.  The  Nueva  Era,  the  semi-offi- 
cial organ  of  the  Madero  administration,  said  editorially  in 
December,  1912:  "It  really  requires  great  moral  courage  to 
confess  one's  self  a  Maderista." 

It  may  be  well  to  repeat  here  the  sentence  previously 
quoted  from  the  writings  of  Senor  Fernandez  Giiell,  who  up 
to  the  present  day  has  remained  one  of  Madero's  firm  ad- 


THE   FIRST   INSTALLMENT  OF  LIES    209 

herents:  "At  the  time  of  the  uprising  at  Vera  Cruz  (Oc- 
tober 10,  1912)  the  Federal  Government  rested  solely  on 
the  loyalty  of  the  army."  l 

This  clearly  indicates  that  from  October  10,  1912,  Ma- 
dero  was  a  despot,  intrenched  behind  a  row  of  bayonets. 

Why  was  this  despotism  tolerated?  Because  the  democ- 
racy did  not  exist.  If  it  had  existed,  the  loyal  faction  in 
the  House  of  Representatives  would  have  risen  to  perform 
its  manifest  duty.  But  as  we  already  know,  the  majority  in 
the  House  was  unconditionally  at  the  disposal  of  Gustavo 
Madero,  the  President's  brother.  How  was  it  possible,  un- 
less he  assumed  the  role  of  Cain,  that  President  Madero 
could  be  indicted  and  found  guilty?  Clearly  it  was  purely 
a  family  affair,  and  the  only  way  to  overthrow  the  despot 
was  to  overthrow  the  whole  family.  In  Latin-American 
countries,  and  in  all  countries  ruled  by  dictators,  it  is  the 
duty  of  the  army  to  overthrow  the  despot. 

As  has  already  been  mentioned,  in  countries  ruled  by  dic- 
tatorships, from  the  days  of  ancient  Rome  down  to  the  lat- 
est upheaval  in  Haiti,  which  overthrew  the  President,  the 
army  acts  as  a  salutary  power.  It  exterminates  anarchy, 
when  this  begins  to  degenerate  from  political  into  social 
anarchy ;  and  overthrows  dictators,  when  their  beneficent  or 
tolerable  rule  degenerates  into  a  harmful  and  morally  ener- 
vating despotism.  It  must  not  be  overlooked  that  all  tyranny 
is  progressive.  The  Caesar  begins  by  signing  with  horror 
the  first  death  sentence  against  a  bandit,  and  ends  by  wish- 
ing that  the  human  race  had  only  one  head  so  that  he  might 
decapitate  it  at  a  blow.  The  right  to  rebel  is  the  inherent 
right  of  all  democratic  and  servile  peoples.  If  rebellion  be 
the  means  of  saving  the  country  from  death,  servile  peoples 
have  as  much  right  to  have  recourse  to  it  as  do  those  ruled 
by  democracies.  Real  democracy  is  a  modern  institution, 

1 R.  Fernandez  Guell,  Episodios  de  la  Revolution  Mexicana, 
p.  185. 


210      WHOLE   TRUTH    ABOUT    MEXICO 

and  humanity  would  not  now  exist  if  the  peoples  had  not 
thrown  off  the  tyrannical  yoke  by  means  of  militarism,  orien- 
tal seraglio  conspiracies  or  regicide.  The  latter  method  is 
repugnant  to  all  right-minded  persons,  and  is  certainly  the 
most  unethical  of  all,  as  militarism  is  the  least  offensive. 

Undoubtedly  militarism  is  unethical  and  open  to  the  con- 
demnation of  all  ultra-idealists ;  but  considering  society  in  the 
light  of  an  organism,  we  may  draw  an  analogy  from  pa- 
thology, which  gives  us  so  many  examples  of  diseases  that  act 
one  upon  the  other  to  produce  beneficial  effects  upon  the  pa- 
tient. A  consuming  fever  is  sometimes  nature's  device  for 
throwing  off  an  infection,  just  as  the  cough  that  accom- 
panies certain  diseases  is  always  a  salutary  symptom,  if  not 
the  actual  means  of  effecting  an  absolute  cure.  In  Latin- 
American  nations,  which  are  passing  through  the  critical 
stage  of  their  dictatorial  life,  militarism  is  the  salutary  func- 
tion that  restores  them  to  partial  or  complete  health. 

From  what  has  been  said  it  will  be  seen  that  Madero,  in 
February,  1913,  was  an  usurper,  loudly  condemned  by  pub- 
lic opinion.  As  there  was  no  democratic  system  through 
wThich  the  President  could  be  called  to  account,  the  people 
in  their  servile  capacity  were  quite  within  their  rights  in 
appealing  to  a  revolution.  As  they  were  servile,  as  is  proved 
by  their  incapacity  to  grasp  democracy,  they  had  the  right 
to  use  the  means  within  their  power  to  induce  the  defection 
of  the  army  and  compel  it  to  fulfil  its  obligations — not  con- 
stitutional, but  sociological — of  overthrowing  the  President 
of  the  Republic.  And,  finally,  it  is  to  be  deduced  from  the 
preceding  that  Huerta  was  the  real  President  of  Mexico, 
the  sociological  President,  imposed  by  the  law  of  social 
usage,  the  real  constitutional  President  emanating  from  the 
unwritten  Constitution,  representative  of  the  needs  of  the 
people.  From  this  it  is  also  to  be  deduced  that  President 
Wilson  as  a  moralist  may  rank  with  Telemachus,  impreg- 
nated with  the  doctrine  of  Fenelon ;  but  as  a  sociologist,  and 


THE   FIRST  INSTALLMENT  OF  LIES    211 

as  President  of  the  United  States,  he  has  belittled  himself 
by  his  policy  of  non-recognition  of  Latin-American  Govern- 
ments founded  upon  treason  and  violence,  driving  the  United 
States  to  the  absurd  political  measure  of  having  to  sever  diplo- 
matic relations  with  most  of  the  Latin-American  and  all  ot 
the  oriental  nations.  Very  recently,  February  28,  1916, 
the  news  was  flashed  across  the  water  that  the  heir-apparent 
of  Turkey,  young  Yussouf  Izzadin,  in  my  opinion  quite  as 
estimable  as  Madero,  had  been  assassinated  by  order  of  the 
chief  of  the  Turkish  Government,  and  no  one  is  so  far  aware 
that  Mr.  Wilson  has  severed  diplomatic  relations  with  Tur- 
key. Similarly,  when  the  President  of  Peru  was  removed  by 
violence  from  the  presidential  chair,  Mr.  Wilson,  at  that 
time  already  President  of  the  United  States,  experienced  no 
difficulty  in  recognizing  the  usurper.  Notwithstanding  the 
fact  that  the  entire  world  is  awrare  of  the  handiwork  of  the 
Chinese  political  juggler,  Yuan-Shi-Kai,  accused  of  not  one 
but  several  secret  murders,  Mr.  Wilson  holds  out  his  hand 
to  him,  after  having  effusively  pressed  Pancho  Villa's — 
still  red  with  the  blood  of  Benton — through  his  representa- 
tive, General  Hugh  L.  Scott,  Chief  of  Staff.  The  sig- 
nificance of  this  spectacle  was  further  enhanced  by  the  aston- 
ishment of  the  world  upon  seeing  a  full-fledged  general  of 
the  United  States  Army  treating  with  Villa,  as  power  to 
power,  placing  the  notorious  Mexican  brigand  on  the  same 
footing  as  General  Joffre  or  Marshals  Hindenburg  or  Mac- 
kensen.  This  cannot  have  been  a  matter  of  pride  to  the 
American  people,  its  Navy  or  its  Army.  Mr.  Wilson  owes 
it  to  Carranza  that  he  did  not  recognize  Villa. 

THE    SECOND    LIE  I    THE    WICKEDNESS    OF    THE 
CREOLE    CLASS 

Through  constant  hammering  President  Wilson  has  been 
brought  to  believe  that  a  conspiracy  exists  among  the  Cre- 
oles to  get  the  mastery  of  the  people,  and  once  more  to 


212      WHOLE   TRUTH    ABOUT    MEXICO 

establish  the  Colonial  system;  and  that  to  accomplish  this 
end  they  have  turned  the  army  against  the  mestizo  repre- 
sentatives of  liberty,  science  and  justice  and  of  everything 
that  was  great  in  Mexico. 

Let  us  examine  the  truth  of  this  assertion. 

The  colonel  of  the  Nineteenth  Battalion,  who  turned  trai- 
tor to  Madero  and  took  possession  of  the  plaza  of  Vera 
Cruz  on  October  10,  1912,  to  hand  it  over  to  General 
Felix  Diaz,  was  Diaz  Ordaz,  a  mestizo,  as  was  also  Felix 
Diaz.  The  three  generals,  Reyes,  Diaz  and  Mondragon, 
who  carried  out  the  coup  against  Madero,  were  all  mestizos. 
The  instigators  of  Madero's  murder  were  Generals  Diaz  and 
Mondragon,  already  mentioned,  General  Huerta,  an  In- 
dian, General  Blanquet,  a  mestizo,  according  to  some,  a 
zambo  (mixture  of  Indian  and  negro),  according  to  others, 
and  Celso  Acosta,  General  Felix  Diaz's  "guiding  star,"  a 
mestizo.  The  actual  assassins  were  Cardenas  and  Pimienta, 
both  mestizos.  The  secretaries  responsible  for  having  coun- 
selled or  approved  the  murder,  or  for  not  having  resigned 
as  soon  as  it  occurred,  were  Rodolfo  Reyes,  Secretary  of  Jus- 
tice, a  mestizo;  General  Mondragon,  Secretary  of  War,  al- 
ready mentioned ;  Alberto  Garcia  Granados,  Secretary  of 
the  Interior,  a  mestizo,  according  to  some,  a  quadroon  or 
octaroon,  according  to  others;  David  de  la  Fuente,  Secretary 
of  Public  Works,  a  mestizo;  Manuel  Garza  Aldape,  Secre- 
tary of  Agriculture,  a  mestizo;  Jorge  Vera  Estanol,  Secre- 
tary of  Public  Instruction,  a  mestizo.  Out  of  nine  Cabinet 
Ministers,  only  three  were  Creoles:  Senor  Toribio  Esquivel 
Obregon,  Secretary  of  the  Treasury;  Senor  Francisco  Leon 
de  la  Barra,  Secretary  of  Foreign  Relations,  and  Senor  Al- 
berto Robles  Gil,  Secretary  of  Fomento. 

General  Huerta's  intimate  friend,  who  led  the  troops  that 
captured  Madero  in  the  National  Palace  on  October  18, 
1913,  and  who  killed  Senor  Marcos  Hernandez,  Madero's 
cousin,  was  Enrique  Cepeda,  a  full-blooded  Indian,  accord- 


THE   FIRST  INSTALLMENT  OF  LIES    213 

ing  to  some,  a  zambo,  according  to  others.  Cepeda  was  also 
guilty  of  the  murder  of  Hernandez,  a  colonel  of  Rurales,  in 
the  Belen  prison.  Those  pointed  out  as  instigators  of  the 
gruesome  policy  of  "disappearance"  were  Colonel  Quiroz,  a 
mestizo ;  General  Blanquet,  already  mentioned ;  Dr.  Urrutia, 
Secretary  of  the  Interior,  a  mestizo;  Senor  Manuel  Garza 
Aldape,  already  mentioned;  and  the  Under-Secretary  of  the 
Interior,  also  a  mestizo.  General  Camarena,  accused  of  the 
murder  of  Senior  Abraham  Gonzalez,  Governor  of  Chihua- 
hua, was  a  mestizo.  I  do  not  know  the  origin  of  the  ob- 
jectionable Cecilio  Ocon.  In  view  of  the  preceding,  can  the 
Creoles  be  held  responsible  for  the  different  murders  that 
occurred  at  the  time  of  Huerta,  and  for  the  overthrow  of 
Madero  and  the  destruction  of  "Democracy"? 

It  is  clearly  demonstrated,  then,  that  the  overthrow  of 
Madero,  his  murder  and  the  policy  of  political  assassinations 
that  followed,  was  not  the  work  of  Creoles  but  of  Indians, 
zambos  and  mestizos. 

THE    THIRD    LIE  I    THE    CONSPIRACY    OF    THE    CIENTIFICOS 

I  think  it  advisable  at  this  point  to  recall  the  fact  that  in 
1912  the  Cientificos  no  longer  existed  as  a  group,  faction  or 
party.  I  have  said  that  the  Cientificos  represented  a  group 
of  intellectuals,  never  exceeding  fifteen  in  number,  organized 
with  the  idea  of  reforming  the  dictatorship,  making  it  as 
liberal  and  just  as  possible,  and  unquestionably  expecting  to 
be  named  the  successors  of  the  dictatorial  power.  In  the 
beginning  the  Cientificos  held  meetings  in  which  political 
and  economic  questions  were  discussed  and  resolutions  voted 
upon  and  carried  by  a  majority.  After  1899  these  meet- 
ings were  discontinued,  and  the  politically  active  Cientificos 
were  reduced  to  a  group  of  officials  represented  by  Senores 
Jose  Limantour,  Roberto  Nunez,  Pablo  Macedo,  Joaquin 
Casasus  and  Rosendo  Pineda.  As  has  already  been  said,  these 
five  men,  gifted  with  great  talent  and  learning,  were  guilty 


2i4      WHOLE   TRUTH    ABOUT    MEXICO 

of  political  blunders  that  not  even  five  Australian  bushmen 
would  have  committed  had  they  been  directing  the  policy  of 
the  British  Empire.  In  the  face  of  a  policy  so  disparaging 
to  the  prestige  of  the  Cientificos,  the  dictatorship  and  the 
Mexican  people,  the  other  Cientificos  withdrew  from  the 
group,  not  announcing  their  withdrawal  publicly  in  order  to 
avoid  bringing  upon  themselves  the  undesirable  soubriquet 
of  political  mountebanks,  more  especially  as  conditions  could 
not  be  bettered.  Outside  the  restricted  group  mentioned, 
General  Reyes  was  the  only  other  aspirant  to  the  power. 
He  was  almost  assured  of  triumph  as  he  had  a  following 
among  the  older  element  in  the  army,  the  support  of  the 
younger  and  that  of  all  agitators,  who  with  equal  facility 
manufacture  heroes  and  destroy  reputations. 

Senor  Moheno,  in  his  interesting  book,  Adonde  vamos  a 
dar?  (Where  Are  We  Going  to  End?),  published  in  1906, 
said,  referring  to  the  exclusiveness  of  this  small  political 
group,  that  they  followed  the  "this  car  full"  policy;  and  I, 
modifying  the  phrase,  said  that  a  car  was  far  too  spacious 
a  vehicle  for  Senor  Limantour's  policy — that  it  should  be 
named  the  policy  of  the  "landau  complet"  Among  the 
Cientificos  who  did  not  belong  to  this  "landau  complet" 
group,  and  who  were  excluded  as  any  ordinary  individual 
might  have  been,  were  to  be  found  several  professional  men, 
possessors  of  extremely  modest  incomes;  the  remainder — 
representing  the  majority — were  poor  men  who  lived  upon 
their  meagre  salaries,  which  were  quite  out  of  proportion  to 
the  services  they  rendered  the  dictatorship  by  their  brains  and 
education. 

The  Cientificos,  who  were  outside  the  political  group, 
knew  that  if  the  latter  triumphed  they  would  remain  in  the 
obscure  posts  to  which  they  had  been  relegated,  and  that  if 
General  Reyes  triumphed,  they  would  get  what  had  been  so 
loudly  promised  them  by  the  Reyista  press — persecution,  con- 
fiscation of  their  property,  death  itself. 


THE   FIRST   INSTALLMENT   OF  LIES     215 

When  Madero  triumphed  in  1911,  he  was  well  disposed 
toward  all,  and  the  non-political  Cientificos,  relieved  of  their 
burden,  breathed  freely.  They  rejoiced  at  his  triumph, 
toasted  the  Madero  cause  in  private,  and  felt  relieved  to  see 
their  country  delivered  from  the  hands  of  Reyes  and  the 
Cientificos  who  had  expected  to  fall  heir  to  the  dictatorship. 

In  1912,  of  the  five  Cientificos  who  composed  the  politi- 
cal group — in  which  Senor  Ramon  Corral,  as  Vice-President 
of  the  Republic,  had  been  included — only  three  remained, 
Senor  Ramon  Corral  and  Senor  Roberto  Nunez  having  died 
in  Paris.  Of  these,  Senores  Pineda,  Macedo  and  Casasus 
remained  in  the  City  of  Mexico.  Senor  Pineda  was  poor 
and  devoted  all  his  time  to  his  profession.  Senores  Macedo 
and  Casasus,  both  enormously  rich,  had  retired  permanently 
to  private  life.  They  were  surfeited  and  disillusioned.  The 
inevitable  disaster  that  threatened  the  country  was  plainly 
visible  to  them  and  weighed  them  down.  It  must  not,  how- 
ever, be  inferred  from  this  that,  so  far  as  business  relations 
were  concerned,  they  were  not  on  excellent  terms  with  the 
Madero  family,  especially  with  Senor  Ernesto  Madero,  the 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  who  transacted  business  not  of  a 
political  nature  through  their  firms. 

It  may  be  said  that  the  combination  formed  by  Senores 
Moheno,  Olaguibel,  Lozano  and  Garcia  Narnajo  was  a 
Cientifico  combination.  It  could  not  have  been.  In  the  first 
place,  when  Madero  triumphed,  the  Cientificos  had  dis- 
banded ;  and  in  the  second,  Senor  Moheno  never  was  a 
Cientifico.  Senores  Olaguibel  and  Garcia  Narnajo  were  ad- 
herents of  Senor  Corral's,  having  been  won  over  by  Senor 
Pineda  in  1909.  Senor  Limantour  had  determined  not  to 
support  Corral,  even  if  he  won,  because  he  had  decided  to 
retire  to  private  life  as  soon  as  General  Diaz  would  permit 
him  to  do  so.  I  appeal  to  the  members  of  the  Madero  fam- 
ily to  vouch  for  the  exactness  of  this  statement.  The  Cien- 
tificos cannot  be  held  responsible  for  the  actions  of  some  of 


216      WHOLE   TRUTH    ABOUT    MEXICO 

their  number  after  they  had  disbanded,  and  Senores  Ola- 
guibel,  Lozano  and  Garcia  Narnajo  did  not  even  constitute 
a  majority  of  the  ex-Cientifico  group,  but  a  reduced  minor- 
ity, which  can  never  be  a  representative  force  without  the 
consent  and  authority  of  the  majority. 

I  have  gone  into  this  rather  extensively,  because  in  sev- 
eral books,  among  them  that  of  Mr.  Edward  I.  Bell,  it  has 
been  stated  that  the  revolt  at  Vera  Cruz,  headed  by  Felix 
Diaz,  was  financed  by  the  Cientificos.  The  great  majority 
of  the  Cientificos  were  poor  and  had  no  money  to  devote  to 
this  purpose,  and  it  is  absurd  to  suppose  that  the  wealthy 
Cientificos,  who  were  enjoying  the  favor  of  Madero,  their 
lives  and  property  amply  protected,  would  have  furnished 
money  to  put  those  in  power  who  for  eight  years  had  re- 
viled, calumniated,  disparaged,  persecuted  and  held  them  up 
to  the  hatred  and  contempt  of  the  people. 

The  Cientificos  disappeared  with  General  Diaz;  but  for 
political  ends  they  have  not  been  permitted  to  die.  Later  on, 
in  its  proper  place,  I  shall  say  more  regarding  this. 

THE    FOURTH    LIE  I     MADERO's    OVERTHROW    BY    THE 
REACTIONISTS 

The  first  book  published  against  Madero  which  caused 
a  sensation  was  Madero  sin  mascara  (Madero  Unmasked). 
Its  author,  Senor  Aguilar,  was  antagonistic  to  the  dictator- 
ship and  to  the  Cientificos.  He  was  a  partisan  of  Madero, 
at  his  side  from  the  beginning  of  his  revolt  to  the  defeat  at 
Casas  Grandes  on  March  6,  1911.  The  second  book  dis- 
paraging to  Madero  w^as  written  by  , Senor  Toribio  Esquivel 
Obregon.  He  was  an  avowed  enemy  of  the  dictatorship 
and  of  the  Cientificos,  a  frankly  open  anti-reelectionist,  so 
powerful  in  his  party  that  he  was  chosen  speaker  in  the 
Anti-reelection  Convention  of  1910,  against  the  candidacy 
of  Senor  Francisco  Vazquez  Gomez  for  vice-president. 


THE   FIRST   INSTALLMENT   OF   LIES     217 

The  third  publication  against  Madero  was  a  pamphlet  writ- 
ten by  Senor  Jorge  Vera  Estanol.  Vera  Estanol  had  been 
appointed  Secretary  of  Public  Instruction  by  General  Diaz 
at  the  time  when,  working  in  accord  with  Senor  Limantour, 
his  chief  of  staff,  who  was  responsible  for  their  conduct,  he 
decided  to  throw  the  Cientificos  overboard.  The  fourth 
book,  ruinous  to  the  popularity  of  Madero,  was  written  by 
Senor  Roque  Estrada.  He  was  Madero's  ex-private  secre- 
tary, his  companion  in  prison  at  San  Luis  Potosi,  who  fled 
with  him  and  remained  his  constant  companion  and  helper 
in  all  his  revolutionary  schemes  hatched  in  the  United 
States,  until  the  moment  that  Madero  put  foot  on  Mexican 
soil  February  14,  1911.  Senor  Estrada  is  at  present  Senor 
Venustiano  Carranza's  Secretary  of  Justice. 

What  did  Madero  most  harm  were  the  articles  written 
by  Dr.  Francisco  Vazquez  Gomez,  published  in  the  City 
of  Mexico  press.  Vazquez  Gomez,  who  had  been  a  candi- 
date for  the  vice-presidency  in  1910,  named  by  the  Anti- 
reelection  Convention,  was  Madero's  private  agent  in  Wash- 
ington from  February,  1911,  to  the  triumph  of  the  revolu- 
tion, and  was  forced  upon  President  de  la  Barra  by  Madero 
as  Secretary  of  Public  Instruction.  His  brother,  Emilio 
Vazquez  Gomez,  was  the  author  of  Zapata's  Plan  de  Ayala. 
Dr.  Vazquez  Gomez  made  revelations  which  pulled  Madero 
off  his  pedestal  in  the  eyes  of  the  people.  Some  of  these 
revelations  cast  serious  doubts  upon  the  probity  of  the 
Madero  family,  and  even  upon  that  of  "the  Apostle"  him- 
self. These  papers,  more  than  anything  else,  irreparably 
damaged  his  popularity. 

In  the  House  of  Representatives  those  responsible  for  the 
overthrow  of  Madero  were  Senor  Querido  Moheno,  who 
never  was  a  Cientifico ;  Senores  Lozano,  Olaguibel  and 
Garcia  Narnajo,  who  were,  properly  speaking,  followers  of 
Pineda,  a  partisan  of  Corral's;  Senores  Trejo  and  Lerdo  de 
Tejada,  opponents  of  the  dictatorship  and  of  the  Cientificos 


218      WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT   MEXICO 

during  General  Diaz's  time;  Senores  Aquiles  Elorduy  and 
Armando  Ostos,  who  were  always  enemies  of  the  dictator- 
ship and  of  the  Cientificos;  Senor  Juan  Sarabia,  a  rabid 
agitator  and  an  avowed  enemy  of  the  dictatorship  and  of 
the  Cientificos,  who  had  been  persecuted,  incarcerated  in 
the  San  Juan  de  Ulua  fortress,  without  charges  being  pre- 
ferred against  him,  and  came  very  near  being  executed;  and 
Senor  Pedro  Galicia  Rodriguez,  one  of  the  most  popular 
political  leaders  with  the  lower  classes  in  the  City  of  Mex- 
ico, having  tremendous  influence  in  the  labor  unions,  an  old 
enemy  of  the  dictatorship  and  of  the  Cientificos,  and  a  man 
of  avowed  socialistic  principles,  uncompromisingly  and  incor- 
ruptibly  carried  out. 

In  the  Senate  the  war  for  Madero's  political  extermina- 
tion was  carried  on  by  Senor  Manuel  Calero,  a  friend  of 
General  Diaz's  and  an  enemy  of  the  Cientificos;  Senor  Fran- 
cisco Leon  de  la  Barra,  ex-partisan  of  the  dictatorship  and 
ex-President  of  the  Republic,  appointed  by  the  revolutionists 
with  the  approval  of  Senor  Limantour,  a  former  friend  of 
Madero  and  a  neutral  in  regard  to  the  Cientificos;  Senor 
Gumesindo  Enriquez,  ex-partisan  of  Presidents  Gonzalez 
and  Diaz,  and  vigorous  enemy  of  the  Cientificos;  Senor  J. 
Flores  Magon,  ex-Secretary  of  the  Interior,  former  enemy 
of  the  dictatorship  and  of  the  Cientificos,  and  an  ardent 
partisan  of  the  revolution;  and,  lastly,  Senor  Guillermo 
Obregon,  a  strong  adherent  of  Dehesa,  and  consequently 
one  of  the  most  intense  enemies  of  the  Cientificos. 

In  the  states  the  propaganda  against  Madero  was  carried 
on  in  the  same  way.  In  the  state  of  Morelos  Senor  Otilio 
Montano,  a  normal  school  teacher,  a  Zapatista  general  and 
one  of  Emiliano  Zapata's  counsellors,  was  as  bitter  an  op- 
ponent of  Madero  as  he  had  been  of  the  dictatorship  and 
of  the  Cientificos.  Senor  Palafox,  one  of  President  Eulalio 
Gutierrez's  secretaries,  imposed  by  Zapata,  was  also  one  of 
the  leaders  of  the  anti-Madero  campaign  in  Morelos.  In 


THE   FIRST  INSTALLMENT  OF  LIES    219 

the  state  of  Chihuahua,  Sefior  Silvestre  Terrazas,  who 
had  been  relentlessly  opposed  to  the  dictatorship  and  the 
Cientificos,  and  was  a  supporter  of  the  Vazquez  faction,  was 
Madero's  implacable  assailant.  Senor  Braulio  Hernandez 
also  operated  in  this  state.  He  adopted  the  motto  "Lands 
and  Justice,"  hoping  to  incite  the  populace  in  Chihuahua 
to  revolt  against  Madero.  He  was  Governor  Abraham 
Gonzalez's  ex-secretary  and  had  been  appointed  by  Madero. 
He  had  upheld  Governor  Gonzalez  throughout  all  the 
period  of  the  revolution  in  Chihuahua.  In  Yucatan  the  edi- 
tors of  La  Revista  de  Merida,  Senores  Carlos  T.  Menendez 
and  Delio  Morena  Canton,  carried  on  the  anti-Madero  cam- 
paign. They  had  always  been  avowed  enemies  of  the  Cien- 
tificos, and  were,  moreover,  anti-reelectionists.  Senor 
Moreno  Canton  was  the  anti-reelectionist  candidate  for 
governor  of  the  state  of  Yucatan. 

In  the  City  of  Mexico  the  newspaper  campaign  was  scan- 
dalous. El  Pais,  El  Mariana,  La  Tribuna,  El  Heraldo,  El 
Diario,  and  El  Multicolor  led  the  way.  El  Pais  was  un- 
doubtedly the  worst,  as  it  had  Trinidad  Sanchez  Santos,  the 
leading  newspaper  agitator  of  this  hemisphere,  and  without 
doubt  of  the  entire  world,  for  its  editor-in-chief.  Sanchez 
Santos  annihilated  a  political  party,  a  faction,  an  individual 
with  a  word,  usually  of  ridicule  or  infamy.  Senor  Rogelio 
Fernandez  Giiell,  at  that  time  a  Maderista,  now  a  Car- 
ranzista,  truthfully  said:  "It  was  Sanchez  Santos  who 
carried  the  already  lifeless  body  of  Gustavo  Madero  to  the 
scaffold";  and  I  add:  It  was  Sanchez  Santos  who  riddled 
the  lifeless  body  of  Francisco  Madero  with  bullets.  Sanchez 
Santos  was  always  antagonistic  to  the  Cientificos,  and  dur- 
ing the  last  years  of  General  Diaz's  dictatorship  was  its 
sworn  enemy.  Except  for  El  Pals  the  revolution  of  Novem- 
ber, 1910,  in  Chihuahua  would  have  been  ended  in  ten  or 
twelve  days  by  the  surrender  of  the  rebels.  The  insurgents 
in  the  state  of  Chihuahua  did  not  believe  that  without  other 


220      WHOLE   TRUTH    ABOUT    MEXICO 

support  they  could  stand  out  against  the  dictatorship,  which 
in  the  eyes  of  the  nation  possessed  formidable  means  of  put- 
ting down  the  revolution,  and  was  capable  of  dominating 
an  uprising  all  over  the  country.  Madero  prepared  his  revo- 
lution as  a  schoolboy  might  prepare  a  baseball  contest  with 
a  rival  team.  He  ordered  that  at  six  p.  m.  on  November 
20,  1910,  the  inhabitants  in  every  part  of  the  Republic 
should  rise  up  in  arms  against  the  dictatorship.  That  they 
were  not  armed  or  trained  or  properly  officered,  or  in  any 
way  protected  from  being  immediately  exterminated  as 
rebels  and  traitors,  if  General  Diaz  had  not  been  in  his 
dotage,  did  not  seem  to  enter  into  his  calculations. 

Madero  had  prepared  for  almost  all  his  followers  the 
tragedy  that  overtook  the  forces  of  Aquiles  Serdan  at 
Puebla.  The  Chihuahua  insurgents  had  been  led  to  believe 
that  the  uprising  would  be  simultaneous  all  over  the  coun- 
try. Great  was  their  surprise,  therefore,  to  find  ten  days 
after  they  took  up  arms  that,  with  the  exception  of  Serdan, 
who  had  met  his  death,  they  alone  were  in  revolt  against  a 
Government  possessed  apparently  of  inexhaustible  resources 
with  which  to  crush  them.  Senor  Abraham  Gonzalez  him- 
self told  me  that  the  demoralization  had  been  complete,  and 
would  have  led  to  immediate  surrender  if  a  copy  of  El  Pais 
had  not  been  received  just  at  that  time,  announcing  impor- 
tant uprisings  all  over  the  country,  and  saying  that  still 
other  revolutionists  were  preparing  to  take  the  field  in  less 
than  a  month.  All  this,  of  course,  was  pure  fabrication  as 
later  events  proved.  But  the  fact  remains  that  Sanchez 
Santos  saved  the  revolution  in  Chihuahua,  because  the 
leaders,  waiting  for  the  promised  uprisings,  saw  the  impo- 
tence of  the  Caesar  to  oppose  them,  and  time  proved  to  them 
that  they  could  gain  ground,  not  by  force  of  arms,  but 
simply  by  letting  the  Government  continue  its  stupid  and 
listless  policy. 

There   is  no   doubt,   preposterous   as  ft  may   seem,   that 


THE   FIRST   INSTALLMENT  OF  LIES    221 

Sanchez  Santos  saved  the  revolution  and  afterwards  upheld 
it,  even  dissipating  the  panic  of  the  plutocratic  partisans  of 
the  Government  who  advised  him  to  make  overtures  of 
peace  at  the  time  when  only  Chihuahua  was  in  revolt.  With 
the  same  force  that  Sanchez  Santos  saved,  upheld  and  helped 
to  spread  the  revolution,  he  ignobly  attacked  Madero  and 
all  his  administration,  to  the  point  of  making  it  odious  and 
contemptuous.  This  is  a  fact  to  which  the  whole  Mexican 
nation  can  bear  witness.  Sanchez  Santos  was  always — as 
only  he  knew  how  to  be — the  cruel,  implacable  and  irresist- 
ible enemy  of  the  Cientificos. 

El  Heraldo's  weapon  was  cynicism.  It  held  the  Govern- 
ment up  to  the  gaze  of  the  public  as  something  that  deserved 
just  as  much  consideration  as  a  mouse  that  one  chases  out 
of  its  hole  with  a  broom.  This  newspaper  was  directed  by 
Senor  Ricardo  Contreras,  a  native  of  Guatemala  and  an  irre- 
concilable enemy  of  Senor  Manuel  Estrada  Cabrera,  Presi- 
dent of  Guatemala.  La  Tribuna  was  disputatious  and  sedi- 
tious to  a  degree,  and  exaggerated  Madero's  errors  to  the 
point  of  converting  them  into  crimes.  Its  diatribes  influenced 
the  masses,  who  recoiled  with  horror,  flinging  maledictions  at 
the  "lunatic  of  Parras,"  who  had  dragged  his  country  into  a 
veritable  hell.  El  Mariana  was  edited  by  J.  Rabago,  the 
most  venomous  of  the  journalists  who  was  universally  feared 
for  the  keenness  of  his  satire.  Senor  Olaguibel,  a  representa- 
tive in  the  House,  was  leagued  with  him  in  the  campaign. 
Rabago  had  been  an  uncompromising  Porfirista.  El  Diario 
del  Hogar  published  incendiary  articles  written  by  the  fero- 
cious socialists,  Antonio  Diaz  Soto  y  Gama  and  Camilo 
Arriaga,  both  confirmed  enemies  of  the  dictatorship  and  of 
the  Cientificos.  Senor  Barrios,  another  socialist  who  had 
fought  in  the  Madero  revolution,  spoke  so  vehemently 
against  the  President  and  threatened  to  resort  to  such  sedi- 
tious measures  that  it  was  necessary  to  arrest  and  imprison 
him.  Lastly,  a  Spaniard  named  Mario  Victoria,  who  di- 


222      WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT    MEXICO 

rected  and  edited  El  Multicolor,  a  paper  devoted  to  vile 
caricatures,  utterly  destructive  of  the  respect  a  civilized  peo- 
ple ought  to  have  for  its  Chief  Executive,  even  though  he 
may  be  worthy  of  censure  and  punishment. 

Summing  up,  then,  almost  all  those  responsible  for  the 
demolition  of  the  Madero  Government  were  revolutionists 
of  anti-Porfirian  origin.  Among  those  who  were  not  de- 
clared enemies  of  the  Cientificos  were  to  be  found  only 
Senores  Lozano,  Olaguibel  and  Garcia  Naranjo.  Is  it  cred- 
ible, I  ask,  that  this  campaign  to  destroy  Madero's  moral 
and  civic  prestige — a  campaign  which  had  resorted  to  cal- 
umny and  outrage  to  reduce  him  to  nothingness,  which 
Senor  Fernandez  Giiell  said  had  left  him  with  only  the  sup- 
port of  the  army — could  have  been  directed  by  the  Cien- 
tificos, the  Porfiristas,  the  clericals,  and  all  that  wicked  crowd 
of  landowners,  which  seems  to  inhabit  and  to  have  taken  up 
permanent  abode  in  President  Wilson's  mind?  The  Mex- 
ican revolution  was  prepared  by  General  Reyes,  inspired  by 
an  insatiable  greed  for  revenge ;  it  was  launched  by  Madero, 
without  realization  of  its  consequences,  and  like  all  revolu- 
tions it  fulfilled  its  high  mission  by  engulfing  him. 

THE    FIFTH    LIE:       THE    CONSPIRACY    OF    THE    LANDOWNERS 

President  Wilson  said  in  the  columns  of  The  Saturday 
Evening  Post:  "They  want  order — the  old  order;  but  I 
say  to  you  that  the  old  order  is  dead.  It  is  my  part,  as  I 
see  it,  to  aid  in  composing  those  differences  so  far  as  I  may 
be  able,  that  the  new  order,  which  will  have  its  foundation 
in  human  liberty  and  human  rights,  shall  prevail." 

I  am  obliged  by  the  exigencies  of  the  situation  to  repeat 
what  I  have  already  said  to  the  honorable  President  of  the 
United  States.  I  admit  that  the  Mexican  landowners  ask 
for  the  restoration  of  their  former  rights  and  properties. 
May  I  ask  why  Mr.  Wilson  does  not  measure  them  with  the 


THE   FIRST   INSTALLMENT  OF  LIES    223 

same  yard-stick  or  weigh  them  in  the  same  scales  that  he 
measures  and  weighs  the  Cuban  landowners?  Why  is  it 
that  what  is  good  for  Cuba  is  prejudicial  for  Mexico? 
Why  are  there  two  standards  of  justice,  one  applied  to  Cuba, 
the  other  to  Mexico?  Why  does  not  President  Wilson  de- 
clare that  "the  old  order  is  dead"  forever  in  Cuba?  Why, 
to  conclude,  has  a  nation  of  fifteen  million  inhabitants  been 
handed  over,  in  supposed  defense  of  this  agrarian  right,  to  a 
horde  of  savage  bandits  who  have  reduced  it  to  an  incon- 
ceivable state  of  misery  and  desolation,  when  in  Cuba  the 
most  insignificant  agitation  on  this  score  is  severely  pun- 
ished? In  the  southern  part  of  the  United  States  tremen- 
dous tracts  of  land  are  owned  by  powerful  trusts.  Wherein 
lies  the  difference,  when  it  comes  to  monopolies,  between  the 
American  magnate  and  the  Mexican  Creole?  In  conclusion, 
I  should  like  to  call  to  President  Wilson's  attention  the  fact 
that  the  President  of  the  United  States  has  not  been  recog- 
nized by  even  a  fraction  of  the  Mexican  people  as  endowed 
with  the  right  to  assume  the  role  of  protector  of  the  Mex- 
ican nation. 

In  Part  First  I  have  established  by  means  of  irrefutable 
proofs  that  the  Mexican  landowners  at  the  present  time 
cannot  prove  a  great  obstacle  to  the  progress  of  the  Mex- 
ican people.  In  order  to  convince  all  Mexicans,  as  well  as 
foreigners,  who  have  interested  themselves  in  the  welfare  of 
the  Mexican  people,  whom  they  believe  to  have  been  ham- 
pered by  the  unjust  usurpation  of  their  land,  I  am  going 
to  settle,  once  and  for  all,  this  question  of  the  recovery  for 
the  people  of  lands  unjustly  taken  from  them,  by  citing 
incontestable  facts. 

Since  1867  the  liberal  faction  has  held  complete  suprem- 
acy over  the  conservative  faction,  which  relied  in  its  struggle 
on  its  traditional  supporters,  the  clergy,  the  army  and  the 
landowners.  But  from  the  day  that  the  supremacy  of  the 
liberals  was  verified  to  the  present  time  (March  I,  1916), 


224      WHOLE   TRUTH    ABOUT    MEXICO 

no  one  outside  their  own  group  has  been  a  supporter  of 
the  landowner's  cause  in  Mexico.  I  invite  the  revolu- 
tionists to  present  to  Mr.  Wilson  and  the  American  people 
any  document  whatsoever  which  defends  the  principle  of 
landownership.  In  these  forty-nine  years  no  newspaper- 
man, parliamentary  orator,  university  professor,  priest,  pulpit 
orator,  soap-box  orator,  mercenary  politician  or  writer  in 
Mexico,  has  ever  written  or  spoken  a  single  word  in  favor 
of  the  principle  of  landownership. 

This  principle  was  not  supported  by  the  dictatorship.  I 
have  a  rooted  objection  to  stating  facts  that  cannot  be 
substantiated,  and  I  shall,  therefore,  fully  verify  this  state- 
ment. In  1886,  when  the  great  depreciation  in  the  value  of 
silver  caused  universal  alarm  among  the  people,  who  be- 
lieved that  the  decline  of  silver  meant  the  ruin  of  the  coun- 
try, the  House  of  Representatives  appointed  a  commission  to 
make  a  detailed  study  of  the  situation.  I  was  appointed 
chairman  of  the  committee,  and  the  law  of  1886  was  the 
outcome  of  its  deliberations.  In  the  preamble  the  commis- 
sioners stated  that  the  remedy  proposed  was'  far  from  being 
considered  radical;  that  it  was  simply  offered  as  a  palliative. 
The  real  remedy  lay  in  abandoning  mining  and  taking  up 
agriculture;  and  in  order  to  assure  the  success  of  this  experi- 
ment it  was  necessary  to  establish  small  landholdings.  To 
accomplish  this  it  was  advised  to  proceed  at  once  with  the 
distribution  of  the  land.  The  Secretary  of  Fomento,  Gen- 
eral Carlos  Pacheco,  ordered  that  a  further  study  of  the 
question  be  made  by  the  persons  most  competent  to  render 
a  decision  in  the  matter.  Their  unanimous  verdict  was  that 
the  salvation  of  the  nation  lay  in  agriculture  through  the 
medium  of  small  landholdings,  and  that  the  Mexicans  would 
have  to  resign  themselves  to  give  up  mining,  since  the  good 
of  the  country  demanded  it. 

Why  were  these  recommendations  not  carried  into  effect? 
Because  there  was  no  money  with  which  to  indemnify  the 


THE   FIRST   INSTALLMENT  OF  LIES     225 

rightful  owners  of  the  lands,  and  it  had  never  been  proposed 
to  take  the  land  forcibly  from  them.  Mexico  was  really  in 
a  state  of  bankruptcy  until  1894.  But  from  that  time  until 
1899  it  was  in  a  position  to  take  up  the  agrarian  question. 
I  have  previously  stated,  with  absolute  candor,  that  Senor 
Limantour  made  the  fatal  mistake  of  not  taking  up  the  ques- 
tion of  irrigation  until  1908;  and  I  have  also  stated  that 
from  that  date  the  dictatorship  had  under  consideration  sev- 
eral irrigation  projects,  knowing  that  without  irrigation 
nothing  but  failure  would  result  from  the  distribution  of  the 
land,  as  I  have  demonstrated  in  Part  First. 

But  suppose  the  landowners  had  resolved  to  oppose  this 
partition.  How  could  they  have  done  so?  By  means  of 
buying  up  politicians  and  newspapers?  Ninety  per  cent  of 
the  landowners  had  their  properties  mortgaged  at  about  fifty 
per  cent  more  than  they  were  worth,  besides  twenty-five  per 
cent  in  bank  loans.  The  proof  that  they  made  no  attempt 
to  defend  themselves  by  buying  up  newspapers  and  writers  is 
to  be  found  in  the  fact  that  in  forty-nine  years  not  even  the 
most  stupid  or  mercenary  writer  has  ever  come  forward  in 
defense  of  their  cause. 

The  landowners  cannot  count  upon  the  support  of  the 
clergy,  because  they  are  as  much  opposed  to  the  policy  as 
the  most  sincere  revolutionist  himself.  They  cannot  count 
upon  the  army,  because  the  chief  officers  and  enlisted  men  are 
all  enemies  of  the  system.  They  cannot  count  upon  the  rev- 
olutionary leaders,  because  not  one  of  them  is  a  landowner. 
They  cannot  count  upon  the  educated  element,  because  it  has 
always  fought  the  system.  They  cannot  even  count  upon 
themselves,  because  more  than  half  of  the  so-called  wealthy 
landowners  have  desired  to  get  rid  of  the  lands  that  have 
impoverished  instead  of  enriching  them.  The  cause  of  a 
handful  of  men,  without  revolutionary  inclinations,  timid 
and  spiritless,  who  can  count  upon  no  support  whatever  in  a 
nation  of  15,000,000  inhabitants,  where  every  one,  in  fact,  is 


226      WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT    MEXICO 

their  enemy,  can  hardly  be  said  to  be  a  cause  at  all.  It  is, 
consequently,  very  far  from  the  truth  to  say  that  it  is  this 
hatred  for  the  landowner  alone  that  has  caused  a  six  years' 
civil  war,  which  has  destroyed  and  will  continue  to  destroy 
the  country. 


THE  SIXTH   LIE:  THE  CONSPIRACY  OF  THE  CLERGY 

According  to  the  Mexican  Constitution  complete  separa- 
tion of  Church  and  State  exists  in  Mexico.  The  Constitu- 
tion does  not  recognize  the  Church  as  a  moral  entity.  The 
Government  is  atheistic;  it  ignores  the  existence  of  religion, 
and  looks  upon  the  clergymen  of  all  denominations  as  Mex- 
ican citizens  if  they  fulfil  the  conditions  required  of  every 
citizen  by  the  Constitution.  Clergymen  of  all  denominations 
are  forbidden  to  run  for  office,  but  are  not  debarred  from 
holding  Government  administrative  positions  by  appoint- 
ment. Outside  this  prohibition  the  clergymen  of  all  denom- 
inations enjoy  all  the  civil  and  political  rights  granted  to  all 
citizens  by  the  laws  of  the  land. 

Political  rights  are  active  and  passive,  and  as  the  clergy- 
men of  all  denominations  may  lay  claim  to  both,  it  follows 
that  every  Catholic  priest,  whether  regular  or  secular,  canon 
or  bishop,  may  take  part  in  politics  in  general,  and  in  the 
elections  as  an  individual,  there  being  no  difference  between 
him  and  any  other  citizen.  The  only  disqualification  is  the 
one  I  have  already  mentioned  of  not  being  permitted  to  fan 
for  office. 

In  view  of  this  it  is  illegal,  absurd  and  irrational,  not 
to  say  perverse,  to  blame  the  Catholic  clergy  when  in  their 
capacity  of  private  individuals  they  exercise  the  rights 
granted  them  by  the  Constitution.  I  shall  not  enter  here 
into  a  discussion  as  to  whether  or  not  these  rights  exert  a 
good  or  a  bad  influence,  as  it  is  outside  the  scope  of  this 
book.  But  as  they  are  granted  by  law,  so  long  as  they  are 


THE   FIRST   INSTALLMENT  OF  LIES    227 

not  rescinded,  they  exist  and  are  to  be  respected.  The  best 
proof  of  the  insincerity  of  the  accusers  of  the  Catholic  clergy, 
who  intentionally  confuse  personal  with  corporation  rights, 
is  the  fact  that  many  Mexican  Protestant  ministers  have  ex- 
ercised political  rights  and  have  violated  the  Constitution  by 
running  for  office,  and  even  succeeded  in  having  themselves 
elected  representatives,  senators  and  governors.  Scnor  Nico- 
las Islas  y  Bustamente,  a  lawyer,  was  a  Protestant  bishop, 
and  advanced  his  candidacy  for  the  Senate  without  having 
renounced  his  ministerial  office.  It  was  only  when  he  was 
elected  that  he  renounced  the  episcopacy  to  take  his  seat  in 
the  Senate.  There  have  been  Mexican  Protestant  ministers 
who  have  renounced  their  ministerial  calling  to  run  for  the 
House  of  Representatives,  and  after  the  expiration  of  their 
first  term,  having  collected  their  salary,  have  gone  back  to 
the  ministry  when  they  failed  to  be  reelected  to  the  House. 
As  no  proof  has  ever  been  established  that  the  Mexican 
Catholic  clergy  has,  as  a  body  or  corporation,  ever  mixed  in 
politics,  all  charges  brought  against  it,  whether  true  or  false, 
are  absolutely  null.  The  revolutionists  in  their  efforts  to 
prove  that  the  Catholic  clergy  has  conspired  against  the 
Constitution,  commit  the  incredible  blunder  of  citing  as  a 
proof  the  exercise  of  the  right  to  mix  in  political  affairs  as 
private  individuals  that  every  clergyman  has  the  privilege 
of  availing  himself  of  under  the  decrees  of  the  Constitution. 

THE  SEVENTH    LIE  I  THE  GREAT  POPULAR  ASPIRATIONS 

The  revolutionists  impressed  upon  Mr.  Wilson  the  neces- 
sity of  putting  an  end  to  the  Huerta  Government,  as  the 
usurper  was  the  greatest  obstacle  to  the  fulfillment  of  the 
people's  aspirations — the  possession  of  the  land  monopolized 
by  the  landowners. 

In  Part  First  I  have  proved  that  the  northern  states, 
Sonora,  Chihuahua,  Sinaloa,  Durango,  Coahuila  and  the 
northern  part  of  Tamaulipas,  do  not  possess  lands  suitable 


228      WHOLE   TRUTH    ABOUT    MEXICO 

for  agriculture,  that  their  greatest  source  of  wealth  lies  first 
in  their  mines,  and  secondly  in  their  forests  and  grazing 
lands.  I  have  proved  that  the  amount  of  arable  land  is  in- 
significant; that  the  day  wage  in  the  north  was  high,  and 
that  the  poorer  class  gave  little  or  no  thought  to  the  distri- 
bution of  lands.  I  shall  proceed  to  confirm  these  statements. 

The  leading  Mexican  Socialists,  Senores  Ricardo  and 
Enrique  Flores  Magon,  who  are  well  known  in  the  United 
States,  took  Chihuahua  for  their  principal  field  of  action. 
Other  socialist  advocates  of  the  distribution  of  lands, 
among  them  the  socialist  poet,  Praxedis  Guerrero,  worked 
energetically  for  the  cause  in  Chihuahua.  Before  Madero 
launched  his  revolution,  guerrilla  bands  calling  themselves 
Magonistas,  had  been  in  revolt,  but  had  not  succeeded  in  ac- 
complishing much  in  the  three  months  they  had  been  active. 
It  is  evident  that  if  the  masses  in  Chihuahua  had  been  enthu- 
siastic for  the  distribution  of  lands,  they  would  have  joined 
the  Magonistas  in  1910,  and  not  the  Maderistas,  because  the 
latter,  neither  in  Chihuahua  nor  out  of  it,  had  ever  held  out 
the  distribution  of  lands  as  an  inducement.  They  were  not 
upholders  of  socialist  tenets  and  their  first  object  was  to 
get  rid  of  the  Magonista  revolutionary  bands. 

Senor  Braulio  Hernandez,  an  ex-schoolmaster  and  ex-sec- 
retary of  the  Abraham  Gonzalez  administration  in  Chihua- 
hua, took  as  his  motto  "Lands  and  Justice,"  in  an  attempt  to 
recruit  adherents  for  the  Vazquez  Gomez  campaign,  which 
in  1913  was  in  the  last  stages  of  dissolution.  Seeing  that 
no  one  paid  any  attention  to  him,  he  offered  to  give  lands 
gratuitously,  without  the  beneficiaries  being  held  in  any  way 
responsible.  Still  no  one  was  enthusiastic,  and  he  offered  to 
exempt  all  the  owners  of  small  landholdings  from  Federal, 
state  and  municipal  taxes.  And  even  so  the  Vazquez 
Gomez  cause  was  not  sustained! 

Every  one  knows  that  at  the  present  time  Senor  Venusti- 
ano  Carranza  is  taken  up  with  the  Oaxaca  campaign.  The 


THE   FIRST  INSTALLMENT  OF  LIES    229 

state  of  Oaxaca  has  a  population  of  1,200,000  inhabitants, 
almost  all  of  them  full-blooded  Indians,  organized  in  vil- 
lages having  municipal  rights,  who  neither  possess  nor  desire 
to  possess  lands  individually  Seeing  in  the  revolution  noth- 
ing but  a  program  of  systematic  pillage  and  looting,  they 
have  taken  up  arms  to  defend  their  property.  The  repre- 
sentatives from  Oaxaca  wearied  of  reiterating  in  the  House 
that  their  state  was  not  Maderista,  that  it  never  had  been, 
and  never  would  be,  in  sympathy  with  the  revolution. 

The  state  of  Vera  Cruz  has  a  population  of  1,400,000  in- 
habitants and,  after  Yucatan,  is  the  most  flourishing  state 
in  the  Republic.  In  this  state,  in  Cordoba,  Coatepec  and 
Huatusco,  there  are  more  individual  Indian  landowners  than 
in  any  other  state.  These  lands  are  rich  and  excellent  coffee 
is  raised  upon  them.  This  state  produces  as  good  tobacco 
as  that  grown  in  Cuba,  also  vanilla,  sugar,  rubber,  and  high- 
grade  cattle.  The  richest  petroleum  fields  in  Mexico  are 
also  situated  there.  It  is  the  leading  manufacturing  center 
and,  after  the  City  of  Mexico,  the  most  important  commer- 
cial center.  A  flourishing  state  such  as  this,  where  want  is 
unknown,  where  the  day  wage  is  high,  where  money  is  easily 
earned,  is  not  a  revolutionary  center,  especially  when  it  sees 
that  in  practice  all  the  revolution  accomplishes  is  to  ruin 
everything  it  touches.  If  Vera  Cruz  has  in  great  measure 
escaped  the  pillage  and  destruction  that  has  elsewhere  pre- 
vailed, it  is  due  to  the  fact  that  the  Carranzista  leader,  Senor 
Candido  Aguilar,  is  not  a  barbarian  but  a  man  of  civilized 
instincts.  He  was  born  in  Cordoba  and  loves  his  native 
place  as  well  as  all  the  state,  and  has  been  assiduous  in  pro- 
tecting it  from  the  ravages  of  the  revolution.  Woe  betide 
Vera  Cruz  if  Aguilar  is  taken  from  her ! 

The  states  of  Yucatan,  Chiapas,  Jalisco,  Guanajuato,  part 
of  the  states  of  San  Luis  Potosi  and  Zacatecas,  all  of  Quere- 
taro,  almost  all  of  Michoacan,  all  of  Guerrero,  the  greater 
part  of  Hidalgo  and  the  sierra  of  Puebla,  did  not  join  the 


230      WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT    MEXICO 

Madero  revolution  because  of  expectation  of  grants  of  land. 
Neither  before  nor  afterwards  was  any  such  inducement 
offered. 

The  indifference  of  the  majority  of  the  rural  classes  to  the 
agrarian  question  may  be  explained  in  the  following  man- 
ner. The  villages  where  the  land  is  held  in  common  under 
municipal  government,  still  quite  numerous,  have  always 
fought  against  breaking  up  this  system  and  subdividing  the 
land  into  individual  holdings.  Those  who  do  not  live  under 
this  regime  have  from  practical  experience  learned  a  fact 
that  Mr.  Wilson,  and  all  Americans  who  for  any  reason 
whatsoever  are  interested  in  the  Mexican  question,  ought  to 
know.  It  is  this.  If  the  rainfall  in  Mexico  were  regular,  and 
the  crops  therefore  assured,  it  would  be  more  profitable  for  the 
Indian  and  mestizo  farmers  to  own  their  own  land  than  to 
work  that  of  another  on  a  co-partnership  basis.  But,  taking 
into  consideration  the  direful  consequences  of  the  irregular 
rainfall,  as  I  have  explained  them  in  Part  First,  it  is  better  to 
work  on  the  co-partnership  basis  than  to  be  an  individual 
landowner.  The  reason  is  not  difficult  to  find.  If  the  co-part- 
ner's crops  fail  or  are  very  poor,  the  planter — the  cruel  land- 
owner of  whom  we  have  heard  so  much — looks  out  for  him 
and  his  family  that  they  may  not  starve  to  death.  Whatever 
is  advanced  to  him  is  charged  to  his  account — an  account 
he  will  never  pay,  and  one  which  will  never  be  exacted  of 
him.  Let  us  take  a  co-partner  in  the  state  of  Guanajuato  as 
an  example.  He  receives,  let  us  say,  five  hectares  of  arable 
land  from  the  planter,  the  seed,  the  plough,  the  yoke  of 
oxen  and  whatever  else  he  may  need.  If  the  crop  is  har- 
vested, half  goes  to  the  planter  and  half  to  the  co-partner; 
the  feed  of  the  oxen  during  the  time  he  has  had  them,  the 
value  of  the  seed,  at  cost  price  and  one-half  of  the  cost  of 
harvesting,  transportation  and  husking,  being  discounted 
from  the  co-partner's  share.  As  the  farmers  know  that  in 
the  cold  and  temperate  zones  it  is  far  more  profitable  to  be 


THE   FIRST  INSTALLMENT  OF  LIES     231 

a  co-partner  than  a  proprietor,  they  naturally  do  not  mani- 
fest great  enthusiasm  for  the  much-discussed  distribution  of 
lands.  In  the  state  of  Morelos  it  is  different,  because,  as  I 
have  already  explained,  it  is  in  the  hot  zone  and  it  is  more 
profitable  to  be  a  proprietor  there  than  a  co-partner.  I  have 
also  explained  that  in  Morelos  the  lands  set  apart  for  the 
cultivation  of  rice  and  sugar-cane  were  about  one-fifth  of  the 
total  arable  land,  and  that  the  rest  was  leased  by  the  planters 
to  the  ranchmen,  usually  belonging  to  the  lower  class,  who 
employed  the  Indians  to  work  for  them.  The  struggle  in 
Morelos  in  reality  consists  in  obliging  the  planters  to  sell  or 
lease  the  lands  to  the  Indian  day-laborers,  and  not  to  the 
ranchmen. 

Outside  the  states  of  Morelos,  Mexico,  the  southern  part 
of  Puebla,  Tlaxcala  and  a  very  restricted  portion  of  Hidalgo, 
San  Luis  Potosi  and  Zacatecas,  the  popular  rural  classes  have 
not  the  least  desire  for  the  distribution  of  the  land.  If,  to- 
gether with  this,  we  take  into  consideration  that  no  one  in 
Mexico,  from  1867  to  the  present  day,  has  ever  opposed  the 
distribution  of  the  land — if  done  under  the  terms  of  the 
Constitution  and  the  lawful  rights  of  the  owners  protected — 
it  would  appear  that  the  revolution  has  been  superfluous,  to 
say  the  least.  The  planters  decline  to  be  robbed,  and  in  this 
they  are  supported  by  all  Mexicans  who  are  not  bandits. 
The  situation  would  be  identical  in  the  United  States  if  there 
were  question  of  subdividing  lands  that  had  been  taken  from 
their  rightful  owners  at  the  point  of  the  bayonet.  All  this 
clearly  demonstrates  that  a  revolution  was  not  necessary  to 
solve  the  question  of  the  distribution  of  the  Mexican  lands. 
It  did  not  call  for  a  drop  of  blood;  for  the  sacrifice  of  even 
the  most  insignificant  life;  nor  for  even  the  slightest  incon- 
venience to  any  one.  Much  less  did  it  require  that  the  Pres- 
ident of  the  United  States  should  compromise  his  fair  name, 
that  of  his  Government  and  the  peace  and  tranquillity  of  the 
American  people. 


232      WHOLE   TRUTH    ABOUT    MEXICO 

THE  EIGHTH   LIE:   HUERTA^S  OPPOSITION  TO   PROGRESS  AND 

REFORM 

General  Huerta's  enemies  sought  and  succeeded  in  pre- 
senting him  to  the  world  as  the  avowed  enemy  of  the  re- 
demption of  the  Mexican  people  by  the  distribution  of  land. 
This  is  the  most  cynical  lie  of  which  the  political  revolu- 
tionists— the  purveyors  of  lies  worthy  of  the  illiterate  lower 
classes — have  been  guilty.  In  March,  1913,  one  month 
after  General  Huerta  had  assumed  the  power,  Senor  Toribio 
Esquivel  Obregon,  his  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  introduced 
a  bill  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  asking  in  the  Pres- 
ident's name  for  an  appropriation  of  several  million  pesos  to 
be  used  to  buy  lands  for  the  purpose  of  distributing  them 
among  the  poor  farmers.  The  record  of  the  bill  may  be 
found  in  the  Diario  Oficial  de  los  Estados  Unidos  Mexi- 
canos,  in  the  Diario  de  los  Debates  de  la  Cdmara  de  Diputa- 
dos,  in  the  files  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  in  the  ar- 
chives of  the  Treasury  Department,  in  the  files  of  the  state 
Legislatures,  and  in  all  the  leading  newspapers  of  the  day 
published  in  the  City  of  Mexico.  It  is  impossible  to  deny  that 
in  1913  General  Huerta  initiated  what  Senor  Carranza  is 
at  present  thinking  of  doing — buying  lands  from  the  planters 
to  be  divided  among  the  poor  farmers  or  villagers,  with  the 
idea  of  dowering  them  with  municipal  rights.  Mr.  Wilson 
and  the  American  people  ought  to  be  convinced,  in  view  of 
the  fact  I  have  just  stated,  how  deceived  they  have  been  by 
the  barefaced  assertion  of  the  revolutionary  politicians  that 
two  parties  are  struggling  in  Mexico;  one  desiring  to  redeem 
the  people  by  giving  them  land;  the  other  wishing  to  starve 
them  to  death  by  keeping  them  subject  to  the  landowners. 
Later,  when  speaking  of  these  revolutionists  as  reformers,  I 
shall  return  to  the  subject  once  more. 


THE   FIRST   INSTALLMENT  OF  LIES    233 


THE  INJUSTICE  OF  PRESIDENT   WILSON   TOWARD  THE 
FEDERAL  ARMY 

The  defection  of  the  Federal  army  which  overthrew  Ma- 
dero  has  caused  President  Wilson  great  and  deep-seated  con- 
sternation. From  the  moral  point  of  view  nothing  could  be 
more  reprehensible  than  this  defection  of  the  Federal  forces; 
from  the  sociological  point  of  view  nothing  was  more  logical. 
In  politics  everything  is  allowable  that  comes  under  the  juris- 
diction of  human  law,  which  is  as  inflexible  as  the  law  gov- 
erning the  planetary  system.  It  is  not  necessary  to  be  as 
learned  a  man  as  Mr.  Wilson  to  understand  that  an  army 
made  up  almost  entirely  of  socialists  cannot  be  forced  to  be 
loyal  to  aristocrats  and  plutocrats  who,  according  to  social- 
ist doctrines,  have  robbed  the  people.  It  would  be  just  as 
impossible  to  expect  the  nobles  who  fought  in  the  battle  of 
Agincourt  to  be  loyal  to  the  Barcelona  anarchists,  the  Rus- 
sian nihilists  or  the  French  liberators.  The  army  is  an  arm 
belonging  to  the  social  class  of  which  its  personnel  is  com- 
posed. If  the  army  is  composed  exclusively  of  Catholics,  it 
is  absolute  folly  to  believe  that  this  army  could  ever  cham- 
pion Protestantism  or  Mohammedanism.  It  is  necessary,  in 
order  to  have  a  strictly  national  army,  that  it  be  composed 
of  representatives  of  all  social  classes,  and  in  such  proportion 
that  class  interest  shall  never  come  in  conflict  with  national, 
government  or  other  class  interests. 

Mr.  Wilson  does  not  know  what  the  Mexican  army  is, 
or  what  it  has  been,  since  the  War  of  Independence  down  to 
1910.  The  Indian  race,  with  insignificant  exceptions,  forms 
the  largest  contingent  of  the  national  forces.  Since  the  War 
of  Independence  it  has  been  evident  that  the  Indians,  who 
had  risen  under  the  leadership  of  Cura  Hidalgo,  being  con- 
vinced that  the  only  thought  of  the  Creoles  was  to  exploit 
them  instead  of  the  Spaniards,  showed  great  indifference  to- 


234      WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT    MEXICO 

ward  a  cause  that  did  not  interest  them,  and  fought  as  brave- 
ly in  the  ranks  of  the  loyalists  as  in  that  of  the  insurgents. 
It  was  quite  a  usual  thing  for  the  victorious  leader  to  trans- 
fer to  his  ranks  the  prisoners  he  had  just  captured  from  his 
vanquished  foe,  and  it  has  been  known  that  Indians  who  in 
the  morning  had  fought  against  the  Spaniards,  were  to  be 
found  in  the  afternoon  fighting  in  the  Spanish  ranks  against 
their  own  brothers.  The  same  phenomenon  was  observed 
during  the  Reform  War  between  Catholics  and  non-Cath- 
olics. In  this  the  Indians,  notwithstanding  the  fact  that 
they  were  Catholics,  won  the  anti-Catholic  cause,  fighting 
in  its  ranks.  In  the  War  of  Intervention  against  the  French, 
the  Indians  fought  indifferently  either  in  the  Mexican  or  in 
the  French  ranks — a  fact  that  is  explained  by  the  absolute 
passivity  of  the  Indian,  which  renders  him  such  a  fit  subject 
for  military  discipline.  The  Indian  can  never  be  the 
soldier  of  the  present  day,  an  autonomous  soldier;  he,  how- 
ever, is  the  most  perfect  example  of  the  automatic  soldier. 
This  explanation  should  serve  to  convince  the  people  that 
previous  to  1910  the  soul  that  vivified  the  Mexican  army 
was  its  officered  body,  and  as  all  its  members  belonged  to 
the  middle  class,  the  army  had  to  be  loyal  to  the  middle  class 
only,  its  natural  owner. 

In  1910  seventy  per  cent  of  the  middle  class  was  bureau- 
cratic ;  consequently,  the  master  of  the  army  was  the  bureau- 
cracy that  General  Diaz  had  founded  and  that  was,  there- 
fore, Porfirista. 

Senor  Francisco  Madero  triumphed,  and  notwithstanding 
the  fact  that  he  was  not  acceptable  to  the  army  because  he 
was  a  civilian,  and  because  he  had  villified  it  so  outrageously, 
the  army  apparently  decided  to  support  him  loyally.  But 
this  loyalty  was  feigned.  The  army's  real  loyalty  was  for 
its  master,  the  bureaucratic  class,  and  as  Madero,  following 
counsels  of  his  uncle,  Ernesto  Madero,  and  his  cousin,  Rafael 
Hernandez,  declared  that  he  would  respect  the  rights  of  the 


THE   FIRST  INSTALLMENT  OF  LIES    235 

bureaucrats,  leaving  them  in  their  various  public  posts,  the 
bureaucrats  ordered  the  army  to  support  Madero. 

Zapata  raised  the  standard  of  revolt  in  the  south.  He  was 
the  idol  of  the  Indians  of  Morelos  and  the  leader  of  masses 
who  hated  the  whites  and  the  mestizos,  and  who  clamored 
for  the  destruction  of  the  Porfirian  bureaucratic  system  that 
Madero  had  protected.  Naturally,  the  middle  class,  forced 
to  defend  its  prerogatives,  appealed  to  its  own,  and  once 
more  we  find  the  Mexican  army  loyally  defending  Madero 
against  Zapata's  hordes. 

Orozco  raised  the  standard  of  revolt  in  the  north.  He 
was  the  representative  of  the  popular  and  sub-popular  classes, 
bent  upon  overthrowing  not  only  Madero  but  the  entire 
Porfirian  bureaucratic  system — that  is,  snatching  the  su- 
preme power  which  it  had  wielded  since  1867,  from  the 
hands  of  the  middle  class.  Once  more,  as  was  quite  natural, 
the  army  supported  Madero. 

But  Senor  Luis  Cabrera,  the  leader  of  the  Maderista  ma- 
jority in  the  House  of  Representatives,  had  sounded  his  well- 
known  warning:  "La  Revolucion  es  la  Revolucion,"  which, 
interpreted  by  him,  meant  that  all  the  host  of  public  em- 
ployees in  Federal  and  state  departments,  dating  from  the 
dictatorship,  should  be  turned  out.  The  bureaucracy  pricked 
up  its  ears.  It  saw  that  Senor  Pino  Suarez,  the  Vice-Presi- 
dent  and  the  sub-chief  of  the  Porra,  the  group  of  agitators 
that  had  been  organized  by  Gustavo  Madero,  of  which  I 
have  already  spoken,  held  the  same  views  as  Senor  Cabrera, 
and  that,  notwithstanding  the  protection  of  President  Ma- 
dero, the  employees  of  the  Department  of  Public  Instruction, 
which  was  under  the  direction  of  Senor  Pino  Suarez,  were 
being  dismissed.  The  bureaucracy  knew  that  until  Septem- 
ber, 1912,  when  the  majority  was  carried  by  the  Maderistas, 
its  protectors  had  been  Ernesto  Madero,  Rafael  Hernandez 
and  the  House  of  Representatives.  This  majority  declared 
itself  a  "reform  majority,"  by  which  they  meant  a  reform  of 


236      WHOLE   TRUTH    ABOUT    MEXICO 

the  public  service,  which,  according  to  them,  ought  to  pass 
to  the  sub-popular  leaders  and  the  state  bureaucrats.  The 
majority,  headed  by  Senores  Pino  Suarez  and  Cabrera  and 
the  Secretaries  of  the  Treasury  and  the  Interior,  both  par- 
tisans of  the  conservative  policy,  declared  war  to  the  knife. 
Suddenly  the  official  press  took  up  the  cudgels  for  Gustavo 
Madero,  who  was  made  to  appear  the  enemy  instead  of  the 
originator  of  the  Porra.  The  bureaucracy  saw  that  they  had 
arrayed  against  them  the  invincible  force  of  the  radical  mob 
element.  It  was  then  that  the  powerful  bureaucratic  class, 
representing  seventy  per  cent  of  the  middle  class,  turned  to 
the  army,  its  natural  protector,  and  carefully  prepared  it  for 
the  attack  upon  Madero  and  the  Porra.  A  man  of  Mr.  Wil- 
son's learning  should  not  attempt  in  politics  to  measure  with 
the  strict  rule  of  Christian  morality.  Never  in  the  history 
of  the  world  has  it  been  known  that  a  social  political  body, 
finding  itself  threatened  with  extinction,  has  not,  in  order  to 
save  itself,  appealed  to  every  means  within  its  reach,  ethical 
or  unethical.  Mr.  Wilson  will  find  ample  proof  of  this  in 
Germany's  submarine  policy,  surely  far  more  unethical  than 
the  defection  of  an  army  to  save  one  class  of  society,  threat- 
ened with  extermination  by  another  class,  incapable  of  mercy. 
Before  finishing  with  this  subject  I  shall  recall  to  Mr.  Wil- 
son's mind,  and  to  that  of  all  Americans,  that  the  famous 
American  War  of  Secession  opened  with  the  treason  of  the 
South,  and  the  defection  of  that  portion  of  the  Federal  army 
which  sympathized  with  them.  For  the  North  this  defection 
was  a  detestable  act  of  treason;  for  the  South  it  was  a  sub- 
lime act  of  patriotism,  an  act  of  loyalty  to  the  Southern 
cause.  This  act  has  been  glorified  in  the  South;  statues 
have  been  erected  to  the  men  who  in  1861  were  branded  as 
traitors;  streets,  public  squares  and  popular  buildings  have 
been  named  for  them  to  immortalize  their  memory. 

The  defection  of  the  Mexican  Federal  army  in  February, 
1913,  was  not  a  mere  act  of  disloyalty,  but  the  fulfillment 


THE   FIRST   INSTALLMENT  OF  LIES    237 

of  an  inexorable  duty.  Military  discipline  stood  face  to  face 
with  a  century-old  discipline  which  stood  for  the  supremacy 
of  the  educated  over  the  illiterate.  The  Mexican  middle 
class,  notwithstanding  its  deficiencies,  its  weaknesses  and  its 
vices,  has  rights  because  of  its  merits  to  represent  Mexican 
civilization.  The  defection  of  a  great  part  of  the  American 
Federal  army  to  the  Southern  cause  was  an  act  of  loyalty  to 
the  class  to  which  it  belonged,  although  this  class  upheld  the 
principle  of  slavery. 

Senores  Pino  Suarez  and  Cabrera,  on  account  of  their 
Marat  tendencies,  were  Madero's  worst  enemies  and  more 
than  any  one  else  responsible  for  the  fall  of  their  chief.  Pino 
Suarez  paid  with  his  life  for  his  political  errors.  Cabrera 
has  been  more  fortunate;  he  is  making  his  country  pay  for 
them. 


THE   REAL   HUERTA 

Similar  social  conditions  must  necessarily  produce  similar 
forms  of  government.  I  am  going  to  draw  an  analogy  be- 
tween the  social  conditions  that  produced  Napoleon  and 
those  that  produce  our  Spanish-American  dictators  of  the 
Huerta  type,  basing  it  upon  Taine's  study  of  Napoleon  I : 
"Morals  and  manners  there  (Corsica)  adapted  themselves  to 
each  other  through  an  unfailing  connection.  The  moral  law, 
indeed,  is  such  because  similar  customs  prevailed  in  all  coun- 
tries and  at  all  times  where  the  police  is  powerless,  where 
justice  cannot  be  obtained,  where  public  interests  are  in  the 
hands  of  whoever  can  lay  hold  of  them,  where  private  war- 
fare is  pitiless  and  not  repressed,  where  every  man  goes 
armed,  where  every  sort  of  weapon  is  fair,  and  where  dis- 
simulation, fraud,  and  trickery,  as  well  as  gun  or  poniard, 
are  allowed,  which  was  the  case  in  Corsica  in  the  eighteenth 
century,  as  in  Italy  in  the  fifteenth  century — 'In  this  coun- 
try,' report  the  French  Commissioners,  'the  people  have  no 


238      WHOLE   TRUTH    ABOUT    MEXICO 

idea  of  principle  in  the  abstract,'  nor  of  social  interest  or 
justice.  'Justice  does  not  exist;  one  hundred  and  thirty  as- 
sassinations have  occurred  in  two  years.  The  institution  of 
juries  has  deprived  the  country  of  all  means  of  punishing 
crime;  never  do  the  strongest  proofs,  the  clearest  evidences, 
lead  a  jury  composed  of  men  of  the  same  party,  or  of  the 
same  family  as  the  accused,  to  convict  him;  and  if  the  ac- 
cused is  of  the  opposite  party,  the  juries  likewise  acquit  him, 
so  as  not  to  incur  the  risk  of  revenge,  'slow  perhaps  but  al- 
ways sure.'  'Public  spirit  is  unknown.'  There  is  no  social 
body,  except  'any  number  of  small  parties  inimical  to  each 
other.  .  .  .  All  the  leaders  have  the  same  end  in  view,  that 
of  getting  money  no  matter  by  what  means,  and  their  first 
care  is  to  surround  themselves  with  creatures  entirely  de- 
voted to  them  and  to  whom  they  give  all  the  offices.  The 
elections  are  held  under  arms,  and  all  with  violence.  The 
victorious  party  uses  its  authority  to  avenge  itself  of  that 
which  is  beaten,  and  multiplies  vexations  and  outrages.  The 
leaders  form  aristocratic  leagues  with  each  other  and  mu- 
tually tolerate  abuses.  They  impose  no  assessment  or  col- 
lection (of  taxes)  to  curry  favor  with  the  electors  through 
party  spirit  and  relationships.  Customs-duties  serve  simply 
to  compensate  friends  and  relatives.  .  .  .'  " 

"Accordingly,  at  the  outbreak  of  the  Revolution,  on  revisit- 
ing Corsica,  he  (Napoleon)  takes  life  at  once  as  he  finds  it 
there,  a  combat  with  any  sort  of  weapon,  and,  on  this  small 
arena,  he  acts  unscrupulously,  going  farther  than  anybody. 
If  he  respects  justice  and  law,  it  is  only  in  words,  and  even 
here  ironically;  in  his  eyes,  law  is  a  term  of  the  code,  justice 
a  book  term,  while  might  makes  right. 

"A  second  blow  of  the  coining-press  gives  another  im- 
pression of  the  same  stamp  on  this  character,  already  so  de- 
cided, while  French  anarchy  forces  maxims  into  the  mind  of 
the  young  man,  already  traced  in  the  child's  mind  by  Cor- 
sican  anarchy;  the  lessons  of  things  provided  by  a  society  go- 


THE  FIRST   INSTALLMENT  OF  LIES    239 

ing  to  pieces  are  the  same  as  those  of  a  society  which  is  not 
yet  formed.  His  sharp  eyes  at  a  very  early  period  see 
through  the  flourish  of  theory  and  the  parade  of  phrases; 
they  detect  the  real  foundation  of  the  Revolution,  namely, 
the  sovereignty  of  unbridled  passion  and  the  conquest  of  the 
majority  by  the  minority;  conquering  and  conquered,  a 
choice  must  be  made  between  these  two  extreme  conditions; 
there  is  no  middle  course.  After  the  Qth  of  Thermidor,  the 
last  veils  are  torn  away,  and  the  instinct  of  license  and  dom- 
ination, the  ambitions  of  individuals,  fully  display  them- 
selves; there  is  no  concern  for  public  interests  or  for  the 
rights  of  the  people;  it  is  clear  that  the  rulers  form  a  band, 
that  France  is  their  prey,  and  that  they  intend  to  hold  on  to 
it  for  and  against  everybody,  by  every  possible  means,  in- 
cluding bayonets.  Under  this  civil  regime,  a  clean  sweep  of 
the  broom  at  the  center  makes  it  necessary  to  be  on  the  side 
of  numbers.  .  .  ." 

".  .  .  All  this  is  understood  between  the  general  and  his 
army  from  the  first,  and  after  one  year's  experience,  the 
understanding  is  perfect.  One  moral  is  derived  from  their 
common  acts,  vague  in  the  army,  precise  in  the  general ;  what 
the  army  only  half  sees,  he  sees  clearly;  if  he  urges  his  com- 
rades on,  it  is  because  they  follow  their  own  inclination.  He 
simply  has  the  start  of  them,  and  quicker  makes  up  his  mind 
that  the  world  is  a  great  banquet,  free  to  the  first-comer,  but 
at  which,  to  be  well  served,  one  must  have  long  arms,  be  the 
first  to  get  helped,  and  let  the  rest  take  what  is  left."1 

Huerta  was  not  specifically  perverse,  he  was  simply  un- 
moral. The  specifically  perverse  person  is  like  the  dipso- 
maniac; the  latter  cannot  live  without  alcohol;  the  former 
has  not  conception  of  life  but  that  of  doing  harm  to  his  fel- 
low beings. 

An  unmoral  man  does  not  take  into  account  whether  his 

iTaine,  The  Modern  Regime  (Holt,  New  York,  1890),  Vol.  I, 
p.  49,  sqq. 


240      WHOLE   TRUTH    ABOUT    MEXICO 

actions  are  good  or  bad;  his  conduct  is  directed  by  the  pas- 
sion that  dominates  him.  If  this  exacts  fifty  years  of  sub- 
lime acts  of  virtue,  he  performs  them  and  dies  leaving  a  rep- 
utation for  great  sanctity.  If  it  exacts  fifty  years  of  crimes, 
he  commits  them  without  emotion  or  preoccupation.  The 
majority  of  dictators  are  unmoral,  and  as,  according  to 
^Eschylus,  the  gods  preside  over  justice  even  though  they  love 
it,  a  dictator  who  is  not  perverse  is  willing  to  give  his  coun- 
try every  benefit  and  advantage  so  long  as  it  does  not  clash 
with  his  ambition.  This  explains  why  ftuerta  was  willing 
to  grant  all  manner  of  benefits  to  the  Mexican  people.  He 
knew  that  public  opinion  is  a  great  power  in  upholding  a 
government,  and  he  also  knew  that  the  wealthy  classes  were 
practically  useless,  so  far  as  their  support  was  concerned, 
when  they  were  not  inclined  to  give  their  money  or  their 
blood. 


CHAPTER   II 

PRESIDENT   WILSON   AND    FIRST   CHIEF 
CARRANZA 

CONSTITUTIONALISM    IN    ITS    REALITY 

WHEN   Constitutionalism  first  made  its  appearance 
was  it  in  reality  Constitutionalism? 
The  State   of   Sonora  was   the  first  to   refuse 
allegiance  to  the  Government  which  sprang  from  the  coup 
of  February  18,  1913.     The  real  reason  for  this  attitude  is 
fully  explained  and  well  attested  by  Mr.  Edward  I.  Bell, 
an  American  writer,  who  says : 

"General  Huerta,  on  February  i8th,  telegraphed  to  the 
Governor  of  Sonora  that  he  held  Madero  prisoner.  Two 
days  later  he  telegraphed  again,  announcing  his  elevation 
to  the  provisional  presidency  and  demanding  instant  ac- 
ceptance of  the  new  order.  To  refuse  meant  war  with  the 
consequent  loss  to  many  important  American  interests  in 
that  State,  and  with  this  in  mind  Louis  Hostetter,  United 
States  Consul  at  Hermosillo,  the  Capital  of  Sonora,  used 
his  strong  personal  influence  to  induce  the  State  Govern- 
ment to  yield  to  Huerta's  demand.  He  succeeded  in  this, 
when  the  assassination  of  Madero  and  Pino  Suarez  aroused 
resentment  and  overthrew  the  agreement. 

"At  this  stage  Mr.  Hostetter  received  a  telegram  from 
Ambassador  Wilson,  directing  him  to  do  everything  in  his 
power  to  induce  Sonora  to  accept  Huerta  as  President,  and 
telling  the  Consul  that  the  majority  of  the  Mexican  States 
had  already  done  so.  Hostetter  at  once  applied  himself 
with  increased  vigor,  and  made  such  progress  with  the  au- 

241 


242      WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT    MEXICO 

thorities  that  they  requested  a  list  from  the  Ambassador  of 
the  States  which  he  positively  knew  had  accepted  Huerta, 
promising  that  if  this  list  showed  an  actual  majority,  Sonora 
would  not  hold  out  against  the  new  ruling.  The  Consul 
telegraphed  this  request  with  its  assurances  in  the  full  be- 
lief that  he  had  accomplished  that  which  the  Ambassador 
had  requested  him  to  do;  that  the  list  would  be  immediately 
forthcoming  and  that  all  would  be  well. 

"Receiving  no  reply,  Consul  Hostetter  telegraphed  again, 
urging  the  necessity  for  detailed  information.  Still  there 
was  no  answer,  whereupon  the  officials  of  Sonora  declared 
themselves  unwilling  to  wait  for  a  trap  to  be  sprung  which 
would  find  them  unprepared.  The  State  Congress  or  Legis- 
lature than  framed  a  resolution  refusing  allegiance  to  Huerta 
and  also  voted  a  leave  of  absence  to  Governor  Maytorena, 
who  was  believed  to  be  too  complacent  toward  the  attempt 
of  Huerta  to  reduce  the  State  to  a  dependency  of  an  abso- 
lute military  dictatorship.  Governor  Maytorena  departed 
for  California,  and  Rafael  Pesqueira  was  made  acting  Gov- 
ernor in  his  stead. 

"But  Consul  Hostetter  did  not  give  up  his  efforts  to  pre- 
serve the  peace  of  the  State.  For  several  days  he  labored 
with  the  officials,  and  finally  the  Legislature  passed  a  reso- 
lution which  the  Consul  telegraphed  to  the  Ambassador.  It 
provided  that  if  Huerta  would  guarantee  to  Sonora  State 
rights,  withdraw  the  few  Federal  troops  then  stationed  there, 
and  permit  the  State  to  elect  its  own  officials,  a  commission 
would  be  sent  to  Mexico  City  to  arrange  details.  The  Leg- 
islature was  strongly  influenced  toward  caution  in  these  ne- 
gotiations by  the  fate  which  had  overtaken  Governor  Gon- 
zalez of  Chihuahua,  whose  acceptance  of  Huerta  had  not 
been  forwarded  so  promptly  as  was  desired."  1 

Mr.  Bell's  account  proves  that  Sonera's  failure  to  recog- 
nize Huerta  was  not  due  to  his  usurpation  of  the  national 

1  Edward  I.  Bell,  The  Political  Shame  of  Mexico,  pp.  332,  333. 


PRESIDENT  WILSON  AND  CARRANZA     243 

supremacy,  for  which  the  ruling  powers  did  not  give  a  rap, 
as  they  had  consented  to  recognize  the  usurper  if  he  promised 
to  respect  the  sovereignty  of  Sonora.  What  interested  them 
was  to  preserve  their  power  in  the  State  of  Sonora,  and  to 
proclaim  local  constitutionalism  and  the  inviolability  of  State 
democracy. 

On  February  18,  1913,  Senor  Venustiano  Carranza,  then 
governor  of  Coahuila,  received  the  following  telegram  from 
Huerta:  "Authorized  by  the  Senate,  I  have  assumed  the 
Executive  Power,  the  President  and  his  Cabinet  being  held 
prisoners." 

Senor  Carranza  protested  against  Huerta's  illegal  action, 
and  with  the  consent  of  the  Legislature  issued  a  manifesto 
declaring  that  he  would  offer  armed  resistance,  urging  all  the 
governors  to  follow  his  example. 

It  is  probable  that  Carranza  was  influenced  to  agree  to 
the  conference  with  General  Blazquez,  who  came  to  Sal- 
tillo  from  Monterey  to  see  him,  by  the  fact  that  all  the  gov- 
ernors, with  the  exception  of  the  provisional  governor  of 
Sonora,  had  submitted  unconditionally  to  Huerta.  General 
Huerta  commissioned  Senor  Rafael  Ramos  Arizpe,  an  inti- 
mate friend  of  Senor  Carranza,  to  use  his  influence  to  ob- 
tain his  friend's  submission.  Senor  Ramos  Arizpe  accepted 
the  commission,  and  made  known  through  the  columns  of 
El  Impartial  that  Senor  Carranza  had  expressed  his  willing- 
ness to  discuss  the  question  of  his  submission  to  General 
Huerta  with  Senor  Ramos  Arizpe  and  Senor  Eliseo  Ar- 
redondo,  who  would  come  at  once  to  the  capital  from  Sal- 
tillo  for  this  purpose.  In  due  time  he  arrived  and  the 
negotiations  were  under  wray  when  the  news  was  received  of 
the  proclamation  of  the  Plan  de  Guadalupe  by  the  governor 
of  Coahuila  and  the  State  troops.  This  unexpected  turn  on 
Carranza's  part  was  attributed  to  the  fact  that  he  had  heard 
of  the  assassination  of  Abraham  Gonzalez,  governor  of  Chi- 
huahua, notwithstanding  the  fact  that  he  had  submitted  to 


244      WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT    MEXICO 

Huerta.  The  policy  of  assassination  that  was  then  being 
followed  was  a  serious  drawback  to  the  pacification  of  the 
country. 

It  seems  indispensable  for  the  development  of  my  plan  that 
I  portray  Don  Venustiano  Carranza  as  he  appears  to  me. 

Physical  characteristics:  He  produces  a  favorable  impres- 
sion, resembling  in  appearance  a  Spanish  diplomat  at  the  Al- 
gesiras  Conference;  weight,  probably  80  kilos;  military 
weight,  o;  political  weight,  unknown;  moral  weight,  aver- 
age, although  threatened  with  ruin  by  symptoms  of  a  well- 
developed  ambition ;  voice,  mellow  and  unruffled ;  character, 
quiet,  serene,  tenacious,  coldly  calculating,  rancorous,  al- 
though balanced  to  a  certain  extent  by  prudence;  cautious, 
although  liable  to  eruptions;  sensibility  to  adulation,  99°. 35 
centigrade;  deficient  in  knowledge  of  the  social  forces  actu- 
ally at  war,  and  above  all  in  knowledge  of  human  nature. 

Career:  An  ardent  admirer  of  General  Bernardo  Reyes, 
for  twenty-three  years  the  tyrant  of  Nuevo  Leon  and  Coa- 
huila,  and  a  man  obsessed  by  militarism.  General  Reyes 
obtained  the  official  election  of  Senor  Carranza  as  senator 
from  his  State  to  the  Federal  Senate,  where  he  remained  a 
great  many  years  without  manifesting  any  policy  other  than 
that  of  inflexible,  unconditional  adherence  to  the  dictator. 
During  his  long  senatorial  career  Senor  Carranza  simply 
vegetated;  in  other  words,  he  was  a  nonentity,  whose  politi- 
cal progress  was  as  noiseless  as  that  of  a  rubber-tired  ve- 
hicle. In  1908  he  was  accepted  as  assistant  governor  of 
Coahuila  at  the  recommendation  of  General  Reyes,  who 
vouched  with  his  head  for  Senor  Carranza's  absolute  loyalty. 
The  rupture  between  the  dictator  and  General  Reyes  in 
1909  destroyed  the  combination  and  Senor  Cardenas  replaced 
Senor  Carranza  as  governor  of  Coahuila.  When  the  Ma- 
dero  revolution  broke  out,  Senor  Carranza  appeared  at  the 
opportune  moment  to  reap  his  generous  share  in  the  spoils 
of  war.  In  this  revolution  Senor  Carranza  was  not  a  com- 


PRESIDENT  WILSON  AND   CARRANZA     245 

batant,  a  diplomat  or  an  adviser,  but  simply  one  of  those 
fortunate  individuals  who  are  carried  forward  on  the  crest 
of  the  wave  at  the  moment  when  a  revolution  is  dispensing 
favors  with  a  lavish  hand.  When  Madero  triumphed, 
Senor  Carranza  replaced  the  Porfirian  governor,  Senor  Valle. 
He  carefully  laid  the  foundation  for  his  campaign  without 
being  troubled  by  rival  candidates,  withdrawing  during  the 
elections  in  feigned  deference  to  the  principle  of  non-reelec- 
tion. Huerta's  coup  found  him  installed  as  the  governor  of 
Coahuila  without  having  received  the  praise  or  the  censure 
of  the  independent  press. 

Hamilton  Fyfe  in  his  interesting  book  has  written  with 
independence  and  a  critical  spirit  what  he  observed  in  Mex- 
ico during  the  Carranza  revolution.  He  says:  "All  the 
foreign  colony  here  and  many  Mexicans  are  convinced  that 
Carranza  was  preparing  to  rebel  against  Madero.  He  had 
supported  the  Maderista  movement,  but  is  said  to  have  been 
dissatisfied  and  restless  after  its  success."  1 

"They  allege  that  for  months  Carranza  had  been  draw- 
ing large  sums  of  money  from  the  National  Treasury  for  the 
purpose  of  paying  troops.  It  might  be  that  he  foresaw  the 
anti-Madero  outbreak  and  was  preparing  to  support  his 
chief.  That  view  obtains  no  credence  in  Saltillo.  The  be- 
lief there  is,  among  the  people  who  knew  and  watched  him, 
that  he  would  have  declared  war  against  Madero,  just  as 
General  Orozco,  another  Maderista  leader,  had  done."  2 

An  American  newpaper  announced  that  Senor  Carranza, 
together  with  the  leader,  Cuajardo,  had  already  planned  the 
revolt  against  Madero,  but  was  forestalled  by  Huerta. 

This  is  not  certain.  Time  alone  will  determine  the  ver- 
dict that  history  is  to  hand  down  to  posterity.  In  any  case, 
in  March,  1913,  Don  Venustiano  Carranza,  as  a  revolu- 
tionary leader,  was  an  undetermined  quantity. 

1  Hamilton  Fyfe,   The  Real  Mexico,  p.  77. 

2  Idem,  pp.  77,  78. 


246      WHOLE  *TRUTH    ABOUT    MEXICO 

Senor  Jose  N.  Macias,  one  of  the  apologists  for  the  con- 
ditions that  Carranza's  policies  have  brought  about,  has  said, 
referring  to  the  Plan  de  Guadalupe  with  which  Carranza 
inaugurated  his  revolutionary  career:  "As  is  quite  evident, 
these  articles  contain  nothing  of  a  political  nature;  this  has 
occasioned  very  bitter  censure.  .  .  ."  * 

Theoretically,  and  in  a  country  where  dictatorships  are 
unknown,  the  Plan  de  Guadalupe  would  be  a  strictly  po- 
litical document.  Nevertheless,  Macias  is  right.  In  Mex- 
ico the  proclamation  of  the  reestablishment  of  the  Constitu- 
tion has  no  political  bearing.  No  one  will  be  stirred  thereby ; 
no  one  will  be  moved  in  his  frenzy  to  pull  his  hair  out  by 
the  roots,  nay,  not  even  to  sacrifice  a  single  hair.  The  Mex- 
ican people  have  lost  faith  in  promises  to  make  them  happy 
and  prosperous  by  the  enforcement  of  the  Constitution.  It 
is  like  promising  them  forty  days  and  forty  nights  of  contin- 
ual showers  of  diamonds  and  gold.  Documents  of  this  kind 
are  looked  upon  as  ridiculous,  their  executors  losing  in  the 
eyes  of  the  people  their  claim  to  recognition  as  reputable 
leaders. 

Before  the  Madero  revolution  there  were  many  believers 
in  democracy  to  be  found  in  the  popular  classes,  but  since 
the  Madero  fiasco  no  propositions  to  establish  democracy 
have  had  a  market  value  in  the  country.  They  have  all  been 
exported  to  Washington  in  the  hope  of  finding  a  market  for 
them  there.  The  Plan  de  Guadalupe  amounted  to  less  than 
nothing.  The  Mexican  people  looked  upon  it  with  absolute 
disdain. 


A    RACE    UTTERLY    UNSUITED    TO   DEMOCRACY 

The  Plan  de  Guadalupe  should  have  been  shelved,  care- 
fully labelled  "The  Fiasco."  Mr.  Wilson,  however,  im- 
prudently took  it  upon  himself  to  keep  it  alive.  Senor  Pedro 

1  M.  Fernandez  Cabrera,  Mi  viaje  a  Mexico,  p.  235. 


PRESIDENT  WILSON  AND  CARRANZA     247 

Lamicq,  a  Maderista  partisan,  has  said :  "Even  at  the  risk  of 
ruffling  the  feelings  of  the  extreme  patriots,  this  sad  truth 
must  be  confessed :  The  United  States  will  demolish  or  over- 
throw, should  it  be  proposed  to  it,  any  government  that  may 
be  established  in  Mexico."  l 

From  this  morbid  belief,  which  has  existed  among  the  ma- 
jority in  Mexico  for  many  years,  an  untenable  revolutionary 
policy  has  evolved.  Since  1910  the  revolutionists  have  pro- 
claimed that,  inasmuch  as  the  United  States  Government 
was  hostile  to  General  Diaz,  the  dictator,  actuated  by  pa- 
triotic motives,  and  to  prevent  being  deposed  by  the  White 
House,  should  have  resigned  in  favor  of  Madero.  Accord- 
ing to  this  preposterous  doctrine  every  Mexican  president  is 
obliged  to  put  the  Mexican  Government,  its  society  and  its 
civilization  into  the  hands  of  the  first  revolutionist,  maniac 
or  bandit,  who  may  present  himself,  if  it  pleases  the  Presi- 
dent of  the  United  States  to  say:  "This  Government  does 
not  suit  me."  He  does  not  even  have  to  raise  his  voice.  It 
will  suffice  for  him  to  permit — contrary  to  all  the  laws  of 
neutrality — two  or  three  scheming  politicians  or  highway- 
men to  hold  revolutionary  conclaves  in  San  Antonio  or  El 
Paso,  demonstrating  to  the  Mexican  people  that  the  Presi- 
dent of  the  United  States  is  with  them  because  he  does  not 
fulfill  his  positive  obligation  of  denying  them  right  to  plot 
revolutions  in  neutral  territory.  The  present  revolution  in 
particular  has  served  to  prescribe,  according  to  revolutionary 
concepts,  the  most  glorious  way  of  betraying  the  fatherland. 
President  Wilson  was  aware  of  this  preposterous  doctrine, 
which  handed  Mexican  sovereignty  over  to  him  to  do  with 
it  as  he  saw  fit;  and  the  idealist  Wilson  took  advantage  of 
the  opportunity  to  essay  laboratory  experiments  of  his  senti- 
mental theories  upon  15,000,000  human  beings.  Accord- 
ing to  the  experimenter,  they  ought  to  embrace  a  superior 
form  of  government  like  that  of  the  United  States,  be- 

1  Pedro  Lamicq,  Madero  Intimo,  p.  43. 


248      WHOLE   TRUTH    ABOUT    MEXICO 

cause,  forsooth,  he  is  convinced,  as  he  says  in  the  columns  of 
The  Saturday  Evening  Post,  that  all  the  people  are  fit  for  a 
democratic  form  of  government  if  only  they  are  properly 
guided,  even  if  this  guide  be  the  chief  of  a  foreign  nation. 

President  Wilson  has  caused  me  some  sleepless  nights.  I 
have  been  unable  to  fathom  how  a  man  of  his  erudition, 
whose  field  is  sociology  and  not  fiction,  has  failed  to  be  im- 
pressed by  the  fact  that  not  one  of  the  sixteen  Latin-Ameri- 
can nations  has  been  able  in  the  course  of  one  hundred  years 
to  establish  a  democratic  form  of  government,  notwithstand- 
ing that  they  have  had  as  guides  men  eminent  for  their 
talent,  their  virtue,  their  learning,  their  civism,  their  activ- 
ity, and  a  zeal  for  their  country's  welfare  which  has  carried 
them  to  the  sublimest  heights  of  patriotism  and  self-abnega- 
tion. These  men  devoted  themselves  to  trying  to  transform 
their  countrymen  into  democrats,  without  obtaining  anything 
beyond  what  the  laws  of  social  usage  dictate  in  accordance 
with  the  inexorable  laws  of  evolution.  President  Wilson 
should  know  that  in  Mexico  the  height  of  skepticism  has  been 
reached  with  regard  to  liberty  and  democracy.  This  truth 
has  been  learned  after  traversing  a  long  and  tortuous  road, 
strewn  with  blood,  crimes,  infamies,  heroic  deeds,  hallucina- 
tions, inconceivable  depths  of  depravity,  crushed  ideals  and 
suicidal  tendencies,  born  of  desperation.  Those  of  us  who 
know  what  Mexico  really  is  have  not  learned  it  by  sojourn- 
ing in  Minnesota  or  New  Jersey,  or  in  the  Boston  library. 
We  have  learned  it  from  grim  realities,  pushing  us  along, 
shaking  us  by  the  collar  as  though  we  were  miserable  pig- 
mies, mercilessly  treading  us  under  foot,  until  the  tremen- 
dous lesson  of  sociological  truth  has  been  forced  upon  us. 

Has  Mr.  Wilson  never  heard  what  Bolivar  said?  "In 
America  there  is  no  faith.  Treaties  are  paper;  Constitu- 
tions, books;  elections,  combats;  liberty,  anarchy,  and  life  a 
torment." 

It  may  be  said  that  Bolivar  spoke  these  words  a  century 


PRESIDENT  WILSON  AND  CARRANZA    249 

ago,  that  undoubtedly  we  have  progressed  greatly  since  then. 
Senor  Fulgencio  Palavicini,  at  present  Secretary  of  Public 
Instruction  in  Senor  Carranza's  Cabinet,  in  a  letter  of  con- 
gratulation written  to  Senor  Fernandez  Cabrera,  the  poet 
whose  lays  have  glorified  the  Carrancista  cause,  says:  "Let 
your  bugle  vibrate  with  the  music  of  Tyrtaean  screeds;  let 
your  pen  unceasingly  reassert  that  the  period  of  gestation  has 
been  dark,  difficult  and  painful,  but  that  rla  patria  is  formed, 
that  Mexico  is  about  to  be  born."  x 

This  letter  was  written  about  the  middle  of  1915.  Ac- 
cording to  Don  Venustiano's  secretary  Mexico,  engendered 
by  the  revolution,  was  about  to  be  born  then.  If  Mexico 
was  about  to  be  born  in  1915,  it  means  that  in  1913  it  was 
in  the  foetal  state  and  that  the  Plan  de  Guadalupe  was  pro- 
claimed to  recover  the  political  rights  of  an  unborn  entity! 
And  for  this  arrant  folly  the  Mexican  nation  has  been  deso- 
lated, President  Wilson  giving  his  support  to  the  destruction. 

Senor  Palavicini,  whose  statements  have  annihilated  the 
revolutionary  thesis,  says  to  Senor  Fernandez  Cabrera :  "Our 
problem,  the  great  Mexican  national  problem,  is  to  civilize 
two-thirds  of  the  native  population,  which  is  not  a  part  of 
the  real  common  life  of  the  nation,  which  is  separated  from 
the  national  conscience,  and  which  is  exclusively  represented 
by  the  active,  intelligent  direction  of  one-third  of  the  popu- 
lation." 2 

While  President  Wilson  in  his  much-applauded  Indianap- 
olis address  was  informing  the  American  people  and  the 
Latin-American  nations  that  the  Mexican  people  had  been 
redeemed,  that  they  were  masters  of  their  own  destinies,  and 
that  he  expected  that  the  liberty  they  had  won  would  be  well 
used  for  the  benefit  of  the  eighty-five  per  cent  formerly  op- 
pressed, but  since  the  fall  of  Huerta,  free  and  sovereign ;  the 
irrepressible  Palavicini  was  placing  the  President  of  the 

1  M.  Fernandez  Cabrera,  Mi  viaje  a  Mexico,  p.  280. 

2  Idem,  p.  282. 


250      WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT   MEXICO 

United  States  in  rather  an  embarrassing  situation  by  declar- 
ing that  two-thirds  of  the  Mexican  people  were  not  a  part 
of  the  common  life  of  the  nation,  that  they  were  separated 
from  the  national  conscience,  and  that  two-thirds  were  ex- 
clusively represented  by  the  one-third  cultured  portion  of  the 
nation.  A  startling  contrast !  It  does  not  enhance  President 
Wilson's  reputation  for  scholarship.  But  the  reformer  Pala- 
vicini  does  not  escape  Senor  Fernandez  Cabrera.  He  takes 
him  by  the  ear  and  holds  him  up  to  the  gaze  of  the  Mexican 
people,  when  Senor  Palavicini,  referring  to  the  native  popula- 
tion, calls  them  "an  unredeemable  herd  of  pariahs."  1 

This  semi-official  assertion  puts  the  finishing  touch  upon 
Mr.  Wilson  as  the  idealistic  improviser  of  democracies.  This 
assertion  of  Carranza's  Secretary  of  Public  Instruction  com- 
pletely discredits  the  Indianapolis  discourse  in  so  far  as  the 
supposed  redemption  of  the  unfortunate  eighty-five  per  cent 
is  concerned.  Mr.  Hamilton  Fyfe  sides  with  the  secretary, 
after  having  reached  his  conclusions  concerning  the  Mexican 
social  and  political  situation  from  personal  observation.  Mr. 
Fyfe  says:  "It  is  true  that  the  Constitutionalist  leaders  say 
that  they  are  defending  the  Republican  idea,  the  democratic, 
as  opposed  to  the  despotic  form  of  government.  But  they 
have  no  real  faith  in  democracy.  The  United  States  officer 
in  command  of  the  frontier  detachment  at  Laredo  was  vis- 
ited by  a  deputation  of  insurrectos  from  across  the  border. 
He  listened  to  them  politely,  then  he  said:  'But  if,  as  you 
say,  you  have  an  overwhelming  majority  of  the  people  with 
you,  why  do  not  you  take  part  in  the  Presidential  election, 
return  your  candidate,  and  have  him  recognized  by  the 
United  States?'  They  looked  at  one  another  doubtfully. 
'Ah,  Senor,'  they  answered,  'we  never  thought  of  that.'  "  2 

That  American  officer  understood  the  Mexican  problem 
much  better  than  the  White  House,  with  all  its  corps  of 

1  M.  Fernandez  Cabrera,  Mi  viaje  a  Mexico,  p.  171. 

2  Hamilton  Fyfe,  The  Real  Mexico,  p.  64. 


PRESIDENT  WILSON  AND  CARRANZA    251 

specialists  devoted  to  the  solution  of  great  political  problems. 
Mr.  Fyfe  adds:  "The  truth  is  that  they  realize,  even  the 
most  radical  among  them,  that  Mexico  cannot  govern  her- 
self as  the  United  Kingdom  and  the  United  States  do  for 
a  very  long  time  to  come."  *  And  the  English  writer  con- 
cludes by  saying:  "Yet  this  young  Captain,  when  we  dis- 
cussed possible  candidates  whom  the  Constitutionalists  might 
put  forward  for  the  Presidency,  clenched  his  fist  and  bring- 
ing it  down  upon  his  knee  said,  'We  must  have  an  energetic 
man.  That  is  what  Mexico  needs!'  An  energetic  man! 
And  that  eloquent  gesture  with  the  clenched  fist!  Democ- 
racy was  all  right  in  theory,  but  he  knew  as  well  as  anybody 
else  that  in  practice  it  would  not  work."  : 

The  distinguished  Cuban,  Senor  Marquez  Sterling,  sent 
Senor  M.  Fernandez  Cabrera  to  Mexico  to  study  conditions 
there,  and  as  a  result  of  this  study  Senor  Fernandez  Cabrera 
has  described  Don  Venustiano  Carranza  as  the  representa- 
tive of  the  "redemptory  rebellion,"  of  "brilliant  patriotism," 
and  of  the  "crystalline  purity  of  the  national  ideals."  The 
same  writer  has  characterized  Senor  Carranza  as  the  "man 
of  the  hour." 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  conclusions  drawn  by  this 
writer  upon  the  Mexican  revolution  are  very  favorable  to 
Senor  Carranza,  but  they  do  not  redound  to  the  author's 
reputation.  In  point  of  fact,  Senor  Fernandez  Cabrera 
found,  when  he  made  a  practical  study  of  the  Indian  who 
was  driving  him  from  Ometusco  to  Apam,  that  this  repre- 
sentative of  the  indigenous  race  had  "a  pointed,  dolicho- 
cephalic head,  low  receding  forehead,  obtuse  facial  angle  of 
38  degrees,  obtained  only  by  stretching  the  compass,  opaque, 
yellow  skin,  weak  shrunken  shoulders,  small  ears,  restlessly 
active  like  those  of  a  hare,  and  an  absence  of  gestures.  Ergo, 
of  an  inferior  race."  3 

1  Hamilton  Fyfe,  The  Real  Mexico,  p.  64. 

2  Idem,  pp.  64,  65. 

8  M.  Fernandez  Cabrera,  Mi  viaje  a  Mexico,  p.  51. 


252      WHOLE   TRUTH    ABOUT    MEXICO 

After  the  physical  examination,  the  observer  passes  on  to 
the  moral,  and  concludes  with  these  words: 

"Woeful  condition  denoting  a  miserable  state  of  igno- 
rance, amorphous  and  deprived  of  all  power  of  action — an 
absolute  state  of  human  irrationability."  x 

It  is  possible  that  Don  Venustiano  Carranza  represents 
the  ideals  of  this  inferior  race — very  inferior,  since  it  bor- 
ders on  irrationality — as  the  successor  of  the  venerable  Fray 
Bartolome  de  las  Casas.  One  thing  is  certain,  unless  Senor 
Carranza  is  able  to  transform  himself  into  the  Emperor 
Cuauhtemoc,  it  will  be  impossible  for  him  to  represent  the 
political  ideals  of  the  Indians.  In  either  case  the  Consti- 
tutionalism represented  by  Senor  Carranza  proves  to  be  an 
idle  fiction.  We  do  not  find  in  history,  or  in  any  of  the 
logical  deductions  that  may  be  drawn  from  it,  that  an  in- 
ferior race  can  live  under  the  regime  of  a  superior  govern- 
ment. 

Another  writer  who  visited  Mexico  in  1913  tells  us, 
speaking  of  the  Mexican  popular  urban  class:  "The 
'pelao'  2  is  lazy,  a  drunkard  and  unmoral.  In  the  haunts 
where  he  sleeps,  in  the  pulque  taverns  where  he  lives,  in 
the  streets  he  traverses,  the  pulsing  sway  of  the  mob  is  felt 
as  nowhere  else,  the  sway  of  that  ignorant  herd  that  kills 
or  dies  with  equal  equanimity,  that  is  as  easily  led  into 
bondage  as  to  heroic  deeds.  The  air  is  ladened  with  misery 
and  pain,  intensified  because  no  complaint  or  protest  is  to  be 
heard.  All  evince  the  resignation  of  dumb  beasts,  relieved 
by  the  maudlin  gaiety  that  accompanies  the  reunions  around 
the  card  table,  the  highest  spiritual  manifestation  in  the  life 
of  the  Mexican  popular  classes. 

"The  Indian,  as  a  type,  seems  less  contemptible — perhaps 
because  there  is  less  pretence  to  civilization — than  the 

1  M.  Fernandez  Cabrera,  Mi  viaje  a  Mexico,  pp.  170,  171. 

2  Pelado — called   "pelao"    by  the    lower   classes,    is    a    low-bred 
member  of  the  common  people. 


PRESIDENT  WILSON  AND   CARRANZA     253 

'pelao,'  who  is  a  genuine  cross  between  the  Indian  and  the 
European."  I 

The  same  writer  tersely  sums  up  the  position  of  the  In- 
dian when  he  says:  "In  a  country  where  crime  is  sanctioned 
as  a  political  means,  where  individual  personal  rights  have 
been  and  are  unknown,  in  a  country  where  half  a  million 
men  possess  the  right  of  life  and  death  over  thirteen  million, 
I  do  not  say  men  because  the  unfortunate  Mexican  Indians 
are  not  in  reality  men.  .  .  ."  2 

The  Argentenian  journalist  has  found  in  the  midst  of  all 
these  human  elements  upon  which  the  revolutionists  are 
striving  to  build  the  highest  form  of  government — a  democ- 
racy, the  moral  note  that  characterized  the  Mexican  mind 
in  June,  1913:  "Everybody  wants  to  take  vengeance  on 
everybody  else."  He  might  have  added,  referring  to  the 
politicians,  everybody  wants  to  rob  everybody  else. 

Hamilton  Fyfe,  who  personally  studied  the  Mexican  In- 
dians in  their  political  life,  says:  "Most  of  the  present 
voters  are  Indians,  incapable  of  voting  intelligently.  If  they 
vote  at  all,  they  vote  as  their  employers  direct;  or  they  say 
naively  that  they  would  like  to  vote  for  the  candidate  who 
will  win;  or  they  stupidly  ask  the  polling  officials  (all  active 
politicians)  to  tell  them  what  to  do."  3 

Mr.  Fyfe  unerringly  points  out  President  Wilson's  mis- 
taken views:  "But  the  discrepancy  between  their  profes- 
sions and  their  avowed  policy  shows  how  far  the  mentality 
of  Mexico  is  distant  from  that  of  Europe  and  the  United 
States,  and  how  impossible  it  is  to  apply  to  it,  as  President 
Wilson  persists  in  doing,  the  same  tests  and  the  same  stand- 
ards which  obtain  in  countries  where  the  idea  of  self-govern- 
ment is  a  plan  of  mature  growth."  4 

1  Tito  L.  Foppa,  La  Tragedia  Mexlcana,  p.  52. 

2  Idem,  p.  134. 

3  Hamilton  Fyfe,  The  Real  Mexico,  pp.  18,  142. 

4  Idem,  pp.  18,  142. 


254      WHOLE   TRUTH    ABOUT    MEXICO 

I  think  it  opportune  to  repeat  here  the  quotation  from 
Victor  Hugo  which  I  gave  in  Part  First,  applying  it  to 
Latin- America :  "If  a  man  is  not  a  democrat  at  twenty,  he 
has  no  heart,  and  the  one  who  is  a  democrat  at  forty,  either 
lacks  sense  or  shame,  or  both."  The  Plan  de  Guadalupe, 
proclaimed  in  March,  1913,  could  not  be  anything  in  the 
eyes  of  the  people,  whether  they  were  serious  or  frivolous, 
virtuous  or  depraved,  but  braggadocio,  or  a  simple  courtesy 
or  delicate  attention,  so  to  speak,  shown  to  the  public.  In 
Spanish  countries  a  polite  formula  is  used  by  gentlemen 
when  addressing  ladies:  "Beso  a  usted  los  pies,  Senora" 
(Madam,  I  kiss  your  feet) ;  but  neither  does  he  actually  kiss 
her  feet,  or  is  there  any  one  who  believes  that  he  intends 
to  do  so. 

To  proclaim  the  reestablishment  of  the  Constitution  in 
dictatorial  Latin-American  nations  is  equivalent  to  proclaim- 
ing the  "Step  down  that  I  may  step  up"  principle,  saying 
with  a  polite  bow  to  the  public,  "I  kiss  your  feet,"  or  what 
amounts  to  the  same,  "Long  live  the  decorative  Consti- 
tution!" 

It  was  an  Argentenian  thinker,  if  I  remember  correctly, 
who  said:  "It  is  impossible  to  have  liberty  in  Spanish- 
America,  so  long  as  we  have  liberators." 

PRESIDENT   WILSON'S   FIRST   THRUST 

In  view  of  the  preposterous  revolutionary  doctrine  spoken 
of  in  the  preceding  section,  President  Wilson's  refusal  to 
recognize  General  Huerta  as  President  of  Mexico  was 
equivalent  to  declaring  war  unto  death  against  the  Mexican 
Government,  and  was  an  insolent  act  of  aggression  against 
the  sovereignty  of  Mexico.  As  I  have  already  said,  and  as 
all  Latin-Americans  (and  one  may  say  the  whole  world) 
know,  when  the  United  States  Government  shows  hostility 
in  any  form  toward  a  Latin-American  government,  because 
this  may  have  refused  to  comply  with  its  demands,  this  hos- 


PRESIDENT  WILSON  AND   CARRANZA    255 

tility  means  the  eventual  overthrow  of  that  government. 
This  may  be  accomplished  directly  by  intervention  on  the 
part  of  the  United  States  Government,  or  indirectly  by  pro- 
tecting a  counter-revolution  against  the  government  that 
has  defied  it. 

President  Wilson's  first  sentiments  of  hostility  toward 
President  Huerta  were  aroused  by  the  impression  wrought 
by  foul  deeds  upon  a  noble  nature.  The  murders  perpe- 
trated by  the  representatives  of  Mexican  militarism  had 
awakened  a  note  of  sympathy  in  the  hearts  of  honest  people 
the  world  over,  and  the  odium  and  contempt  of  the  civilized 
world  was  heaped  upon  Huerta  in  lieu  of  the  place  on  the 
scaffold  to  which  it  would  have  condemned  him.  Mr.  Ham- 
ilton Fyfe  points  to  Senora  Madero,  the  President's  wife, 
as  the  supreme  influence  that  moulded  President  Wilson's 
views.  He  says:  "It  is  said  that  President  Wilson  was 
strongly  influenced  in  this  direction  by  the  appeal  which 
Senora  Madero  made  to  him.  At  all  events  the  quarrel  now 
began,  in  effect,  a  trial  of  strength  between  the  two  men."  x 

If,  as  Mr.  Fyfe  and  other  writers  have  asserted,  it  is  true 
that  Senora  Madero  asked  President  Wilson  for  justice 
against  her  husband's  murderers,  or  for  non-recognition  of 
Huerta,  knowing  that  non-recognition  was  equivalent  to  a 
declaration  of  war  against  Mexico,  it  would  have  been  bet- 
ter to  have  left  justice  in  the  hands  of  the  Almighty  than 
to  buy  it  at  the  price  of  Mexico's  destruction.  The  ruin  of 
Madero's  assassin  had  inevitably  to  be  the  ruin  of  the 
fatherland  and  the  sacrifice  of  the  innocent.  If  the  non- 
recognition  of  Huerta  was  due  to  the  pressure  brought  to 
bear  by  the  Madero  family,  then  history  will  have  to  attest 
that  if  Madero  in  life  brought  many  misfortunes  upon  his 
country  and  spilt  much  blood  in  its  name,  his  death  has 
brought  upon  it  many  more  misfortunes. 

President    Wilson's    idealistic,    political    policy    followed 

1  Hamilton  Fyfe,  The  Real  Mexico,  p.  132. 


256      WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT    MEXICO 

upon  his  emotional  resolution  not  to  recognize  President 
Huerta.  His  arguments  were  diametrically  opposed  to  all 
the  facts  I  have  given  to  prove  that  Mexico  is  not  fitted  for 
a  democratic  form  of  government.  Without  a  doubt  Presi- 
dent Wilson  thought  that  Madero  had  been  freely  elected 
president  of  Mexico.  Consequently,  it  was  amply  proved 
that  in  Mexico  it  was  possible  to  have  governments  estab- 
lished by  popular  vote,  and  he,  therefore,  commanded  and 
decreed  that  Huerta  should  retire  and  allow  the  Mexican 
people  absolute  freedom  in  the  election  of  a  president,  as  had 
been  the  case  when  Madero  was  elected. 

It  is  possible  for  a  president  to  be  freely  elected  in  Mex- 
ico; but  a  real  statesman  would  not  attempt  to  establish  any 
given  form  of  government  upon  a  possibility.  It  is  possible 
to  win  a  lottery  prize  of  $100,000;  but  only  a  lunatic  would 
arrange  the  life  of  every  individual  upon  the  possibility  of 
his  winning  such  a  prize.  The  history  of  Mexico  demon- 
strates that  any  citizen  may  be  freely  elected  by  the  people 
if  it  pleases  the  president  in  power  to  permit  it.  But  if  this 
functionary,  in  order  to  retain  the  power  or  to  transmit  it 
to  a  favorite,  denies  the  right  of  free  election,  then  the  only 
possible  alternative  is  a  revolution.  The  election  of  Madero 
was  no  exception  to  the  rule.  He  was  freely  elected  when 
the  Madero  family  was  the  one  actually  wielding  the  power. 
De  la  Barra  had  assumed  the  presidency  with  the  under- 
standing that  the  Madero  family,  which  possessed  all  the 
elements  of  power,  should  be  the  actual  governing  factor. 
Every  one  in  Mexico  was  aware  of  this.  To  establish  a 
real  democracy  it  is  necessary  for  the  people  to  be  in  a  posi- 
tion to  vote  freely,  whether  or  not  the  president  wishes  it. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  go  deeply  into  this.  Mr.  Wilson 
proved  by  recognizing  the  President  of  Peru,  who  later  than 
Huerta  assumed  the  power  at  the  point  of  the  bayonet,  that 
his  idealistic  views  were  subject  to  eclipses  when  it  was  not 
a  question  of  Huerta. 


PRESIDENT  WILSON  AND   CARRANZA    257 

Events,  have  proved  that  it  was  never  President  Wilson's 
intention-  to  -resort    to    armed    intervention    to    overthrow 

*-* 

Huerta.  His  program  was  to  protect  the  revolutionists  in 
so  rfar  as  it  wa,s  possible,;  if  only,  they  would  overthrow 
Huer^a.  Huerta's  position  in  February,  1913,  was;  formid-! 
able.  He  had  at  his  command  60,060  soldiers,  and  possessed 
the  facilities  to  increase  the  force  to  200,000  or  more.  He 
had  at  his  disposal-  all  the  Federal  revenues  which  at  that 
time  were  at  a 'maximum.  He  had'  the  support  of  all  the 
states  except  part  of  Sonora  and  an  insignificant  section  of 
the  s.tate  of  Cokhuila.  He  could  count  upon  the  nation's 
credit  to  the  extent  of  raising  200,000,000,  or  300,000,000 
pesos  by  a  single  loan.  :, If  this  failed  there  remained  the  op- 
portunity, as  yet  unabused,  of  issuing  paper  money  in  suf- 
ficient quantity  to  support  his  army  of  200,000  men  for  at 
least  two  years.  He  had  in  his  favor  the  indifference  of  the 
Indians,  except  the  Zapatistas,  and  the  adherfence  of  the 
aristocratic  and  middle  classes,  the  clergy,  the  business  men, 
almost  all  the  intellectuals,  and  the  urban  and  rural  lower 
class.  Since  the  Madero  fiasco  the  latter  wanted  peace, 
well-paid  work  and  prosperity.  He  had  the  support  of  the 
Diplomatic  Corps  (including  the  American  Ambassador),, 
which  had  recommended  him  to  their  respective  Govern-^ 
ments  .as  the  only  man  capable  of  bringing  peace  to , the 
country.  In  this  opinion  all  the  foreign  colonies  concurred. 
Carranza,  on  the  other  hand,  after  his  declaration  of  war 
against  Huerta  in  February,  1913,  counted  only  upon  the 
support  of  a  restricted  section  of  the  isolated  state  of  Sonora, 
which  had  an  armed  force  of  only  2,000  state  troops,  with 
no  artillery  to  back  them,  and  three  hundred  Rurales  of  the 
Coahuila  state  forces.  The  latter  had  degenerated  into  rov- 
ing bands,  somewhat  demoralized,  although  they  were  not 
very  hotly  pursued.  Carranza  lacked  money,  arms,  ammuni- 
tion, credit,  the  support  of  men  of  influence,  political  ability 
and  the  qualities  of  leadership.  Without  the  backing  of 


258      WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT   MEXICO 

President  Wilson  his  end  would  have  been  that  of  a  refugee 
in  the  United  States,  or  a  corpse  dangling  to  the  nearest 
tree  or  lamp-post. 

Carranza  could  triumph  only  by  means  of  a  long,  cruel, 
bloody  civil  war,  anti-social  and  utterly  destructive  of  prop- 
erty, more  terrible  in  its  character  and  extent  than  the 
United  States  War  of  Secession. 

If  President  Wilson's  horror  of  Huerta  sprang  from  a 
noble  motive,  it  cannot  be  said  that  his  method  of  punishing 
a  murderer  by  dragging  15,000,000  human  beings  into  an 
exceptionally  horrible  war  was  equally  noble.  It  amounts 
to  murdering  a  nation  to  take  revenge  on  one  evil-doer. 

It  is  curious  that  President  Wilson  should  have  felt  so 
much  repugnance  and  contempt  for  the  Mexican  conserva- 
tive classes,  which  approved  Huerta's  coup,  although  not 
his  murders.  WTio  form  these  conservative  classes?  All 
those  who  do  not  want  to  fall  under  the  despotic  rule  of 
even  the  city  rabble,  much  less  that  of  the  rural  populace, 
whose  unbridled  license  reaches  a  point  of  inconceivable 
bestiality.  Madero  having  failed,  the  power  had  to  fall 
into  the  hands  of  the  rural  popular  class,  which  had  obtained 
it  in  1910;  and  every  one,  even  if  he  were  not  a  planter,  an 
aristocrat,  a  reactionary,  a  cleric,  a  military  man  or  a  Cien- 
tifico,  but  simply  a  civilized  being,  had  the  natural  and  pa- 
triotic right  to  range  himself,  even  at  the  cost  of  displeasing 
the  President  of  the  United  States,  against  the  social  catas- 
trophe that  threatened  Mexico.  This  catastrophe  did  not 
mean  simply  the  collapse  of  a  wretched  murderer,  a  rotten 
bureaucracy,  an  ignoble  past,  a  government,  ancient  laws, 
and  legitimate  social  interests,  but  the  collapse  of  Mexican 
civilization  itself,  dating  from  the  days  of  the  Toltecs  down 
to  those  of  Porfirio  Diaz. 

Such  was  the  prospect  held  out  to  Mexican  society  in 
1911  after  the  taking  of  Sombrerete  by  Moya,  Torreon  by 
Adame  Macias,  Cuautla  by  Zapata,  the  Fabrica  de  Cova- 


PRESIDENT  WILSON  AND  CARRANZA    259 

donga  by  Zamudio,  and  the  perpetration  of  other  excesses 
throughout  the  Republic.  The  fact  remains  that  all  revolu- 
tions launched  with  undisciplined  troops,  in  the  name  of 
the  people,  or  under  any  other  pretext,  have  been  accom- 
panied by  these  savage  excesses.  What  terrorized  Mexican 
society,  however,  was  the  fact  that  this  savagery  had  been 
converted  into  a  doctrine  of  retributive  justice,  which  pro- 
posed to  make  the  extermination  of  the  higher  classes  the 
starting  point  of  the  new  era  of  happiness  for  the  popular 
classes. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  enter  here  into  a  discussion  as  to 
whether  or  not  the  popular  classes  had  reason  to  meditate  a 
vengeance  that  would  be  epoch-making  even  in  the  annals 
of  the  most  celebrated  reigns  of  terror.  But  what  I  shall 
sustain,  and  I  think  justly,  is  that  neither  Mr.  Wilson  nor 
any  other  person  can  deny  the  right  of  defense  against 
extermination  to  one  or  various  social  classes.  The  right 
of  defense  has  not  emanated  from  the  temple  of  the  gods, 
from  imposing  capitols,  from  councils  illuminated  from  on 
high,  from  universities  or  law  courts,  or  from  the  sovereign 
will  of  the  people.  The  right  of  defense  springs  from  the 
organic  world,  that  is  to  say,  from  everything  that  has  life. 
This  right  to  existence  is  sacred  to  all  beings,  from  the 
smallest  insect  that  flies  in  the  air  to  the  wild  beasts  that 
inhabit  the  forests;  from  the  tiniest  plant  cell  to  the  mighty 
tree,  which  challenges  time  and  commands  the  veneration  of 
generations. 

To  deny  the  right  of  defense  to  any  class  of  society  is 
absurd.  The  Mexican  conservative  classes  were  quite  right 
in  sanctioning  Huerta's  triumph,  notwithstanding  the  mur- 
ders that  attended  it,  if  they  believed  that  Huerta  was  ca- 
pable of  saving  the  country.  The  world  has  approved  the 
cowardly  assassination  of  Holofernes  by  Judith,  because  by 
this  means  she  saved  her  country.  History  has  set  the  seal 
of  its  approval  upon  the  reign  of  the  Emperor  Augustus, 


260      WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT   MEXICO     • 

who  put  an  end  to  the  anarchy  that  was  devastating  Rome, 
notwithstanding  the  fact  that  in  order  to  reach  the  supreme 
power  he  committed  more  crimes  than  Huerta.  Christian- 
ity has  glorified  the  Emperor  Constantine,  who  was  far  more 
criminal  than  Huerta  ever  -thought  of  being.  France  re- 
spects the  memory  of  Louis- XI  as  the  founder  of  the  great 
French1  nation,  notwithstanding  the-' 'fact  that  as  an  assassin 
he  could  have  given  lessons  to  Huerta.  England  reveres 
the  memory  of  Cromwell  as  one  of  the  foundation  stones 
of  her  greatness,  despite  his  cruelty.  The  world  has 
accepted  Napoleon's  despotic  rule,  which  put  an  end  to 
Jacobin  'anarchy,  as  a  force  beneficial  to  humanity,  although 
he  deerged  tile  death  of  the  Due  d'Erighien.  The  Mexican 
people*  at-  one  time  recognized  that  they  were  greatly  in- 
debted to 'General  Diaz,  an&  that  it  was  their  duty  to  sup- 
port him,'' despite  the  fact  that  he  had  decreed  'the  horrible 
assassinations  of  June  25,  1879,  at  Vera  Cruz,  by  means  of 
the  famous  telegram  directed  to  General  Mier  y  Teran: 
"Strike  while  the  iron  is  hot."  ,..,'"' 

I  do  not  think  the  assassination  of  Madero  and  Pino  Sua- 
rez  was  a  necessity,  but  even  granting  that  it  was  a  wanton 
act- of- cruelty,  if  society,  threatened' with  extermination  by 
trie;  populace,  believed  that  the  only  man  capable  of  saving 
it  was^General '  Huerta,  it  had  the  right  to  rely  upon  the 
sword 'i  of r?this  terrible  soldier,  just  as  a  shipwrecked  man, 
lashecl  about  by  the  waves,  would  not  hesitate  to  grasp  the 
first  arm  that  was  stretched  out  to  rescue  him  even  if  it 
were  that  of  the  most  criminal  man  in  the  world.  It  is  the 
work  of  anarchy  to  convert  even  miscreants  into  heroes,  if 
they  succeed  in  dominating  it. 

Once  Mr.  Wilson  had  decided  to  destroy  Huerta,  having 
first  brought  the  tremendous  moral  power  of  the  United 
States  to  bear  upon  the  situation,  he  took  his  "moral  ho- 
witzer," loaded  it  with  the  corresponding  moral  projectile— 
non-recognition  of  Huerta — and  sat  down  to  await  with  the 


PRESIDENT  WILSON   AND  CARRANZA    261 

utmost  unconcern  the  wave  of  fear  that  would  sweep  over 
the  Mexican  Government  and  the  Mexican  people,  bringing 
about  the  downfall  of  Huerta,  and  removing  the  cause  of 
displeasure  to  the  honorable  President  of  the  United  States. 


THE  PLAN  OF  IMPLACABLE  REVENGE 

The  Plan  of  Guadalupe,  which  may  aptly  be  styled  "The 
Fiasco,"  because  it  utterly  failed  of  its  purpose,  was  pro- 
claimed by  Senor  Carranza  on  March  19,  1913.  The  state 
of  Sonora  did  not  follow  Carranza  at  this  time.  On  the 
2Oth  of  the  preceding  month,  it  had  on  its  own  initiative, 
and  assuming  all  risks,  refused  allegiance  to  Huerta.  Senor 
Carranza  carried  a  portion  of  the  Coahuila  state  troops 
with  him  and  some  of  his  employees,  and  managed  to  raise 
about  three  hundred  men.  They  were  soon  defeated,  reduc- 
ing the  Carrancista  force  to  one  hundred  fugitives,  who 
would  have  surrendered  except  for  the  omnipotent  Mr. 
Wilson's  menacing  attitude. 

The  reply  to  Senor  Carranza's  appeal  to  the  state  govern- 
ors was  the  meek  attitude  of  these  practical  politicians  who, 
with  two  or  three  exceptions,  were  determined  to  submit  to 
Huerta's  despotism,  however  oppressive  it  might  be.  It  took 
the  Federal  Congress  only  eleven  minutes  to  transform  itself 
from  a  loyal  Maderista  to  a  still  more  loyal  Huertista  body. 
In  the  House  of  Representatives,  which  was  supposed  to  be 
the  genuine  representative  of  the  people,  infamy  touched  its 
lowest  depths  when  not  a  single  representative  of  the  Ma- 
derista majority  questioned  the  Executive  regarding  the  crime 
committed  at  dawn  of  that  same  day,  when  their  brother 
deputy,  Senor  Gustavo  Madero,  the  President's  brother  and 
the  leader  of  the  majority,  had  been  infamously  assassinated 
by  the  triumphant  representatives  of  militarism.  The  plan 
to  establish  militarism  was  agreed  upon  at  the  American  Em- 
bassy, the  conference  being  presided  over  and  influenced  by 


262      WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT   MEXICO 

Mr.  Henry  Lane  Wilson.  With  the  exception  of  five,  the 
cowardly  majority  came  forward  to  sanction  Madero's  fall 
and  to  endeavor  with  inimitable  ignominy  to  whitewash 
Huerta,  putting  a  semblance  of  legality  upon  his  title  of  Con- 
stitutional President  ad  interim  of  the  Mexican  Republic. 
After  the  sensational  murders  of  Madero,  Pino  Suarez  and 
Abraham  Gonzalez,  which  filled  the  civilized  and  even  the 
semi-civilized  world  with  horror,  this  majority — the  cream 
of  the  new  men  the  nation  so  much  needed — put  itself  un- 
conditionally at  Huerta's  disposal.  These  men  came  and 
went  in  Huerta's  ante-chambers,  asked  for  orders  and  re- 
ceived commands,  and  were  not  above  receiving  gratuities, 
thereby  adding  to  their  depravity.  It  was  owing  to  them 
that  the  tyrant  was  able  to  have  laws  passed  conveying  his 
sovereign  will,  and  to  get  support  for  the  interminable 
intrigues  that  were  suggested  to  him,  which  have  placed  him 
in  the  foreranks  of  the  worst  Roman  Caesars,  Italian  con- 
dottieres  and  Latin-American  liberators.  But  no  sooner  did 
Villa  take  Torreon  in  September,  1913,  and  the  revolution 
in  the  north  began  to  take  on  the  appearance  of  an  inevitable 
triumph,  than  this  sordid  majority  thought  the  time  had  come 
to  betray  Huerta,  as  it  had  betrayed  Madero,  in  order  to 
curry  favor  with  the  offended  leaders — Villa  and  Carranza 
— and  by  a  second  treason  wipe  out  the  first. 

This  despicable  ex-Maderista  majority  then  assumed  an 
independent  attitude,  that  is,  anti-Huertista.  This  did  not 
meet  with  the  tyrant's  approval,  and  he  ordered  the  dissolu- 
tion of  the  obnoxious  body.  This  had  suddenly  been  trans- 
formed into  a  righteously  and  patriotically  indignant  as- 
semblage, demanding  satisfaction  for  the  assassination  of 
Senator  Belisario  Dominquez,  after  not  having  dared  to  raise 
its  voice  in  protest  against  a  succession  of  assassinations:  Ma- 
dero, his  brother  Gustavo,  Pino  Suarez,  Abraham  Gonzalez, 
the  representatives  Pastolin,  Serafiio  Rendon,  Federico 
Gurrion,  and  the  journalist  Solon  Argiiello,  and  many  other 


PRESIDENT  WILSON  AND   CARRANZA    263 

persons  who  were  deserving  only  of  consideration  and 
respect  for  asserting  their  political  rights. 

The  situation  for  Carranza  was  serious  from  the  mo- 
ment that  the  political  parties,  as  well  as  the  factions,  had 
their  leading  men  in  the  Cabinet  and  the  two  houses  of  Con- 
gress. It  is  safe  to  say  that  with  the  treason  of  the  Fed- 
eral Congress,  the  Judiciary,  the  Supreme  Court  and  the 
governors  of  twenty-three  states,  all  the  Maderista  follow- 
ing had  gone  over  to  Huerta,  and  that  when  Carranza  pro- 
claimed the  reestablishment  of  the  Constitution  he  did  it 
without  other  support  than  that  of  a  few  insignificant,  irregu- 
lar military  men,  and  without  other  civil  head  than  his  own, 
and  that  of  the  prudent  although  inexperienced  Senor  Eliseo 
Arredondo. 

The  failure  of  President  Wilson's  moral  projectile  to  make 
even  a  dent  in  the  moral  armor  plate  of  Mexican  sovereignty 
served  to  emphasize  the  significance  of  the  failure  of  Con- 
stitutionalism, labelling  it  as  a  ridiculous  political  measure, 
disparaging  to  the  moral  supremacy  of  the  United  States  in 
the  eyes  of  the  Mexican  public. 

Desperation  inspired  Senor  Carranza  to  appeal  to  a 
remedy  as  stupid  as  it  was  unworthy  of  a  politician,  and  es- 
pecially of  a  Mexican.  He  revived  the  law  of  January  20, 
1862,  which  had  been  publicly  repudiated  in  New  York  in 
1864  by  its  author,  Senor  Manuel  Doblado.  He  then  said 
that  it  was  a  dishonor  to  him  and  that  he  had  compiled  it 
in  a  state  of  mind  bordering  on  mental  derangement,  brought 
on  by  the  increasing  number  of  treasons  and  desertions  in 
the  Mexican  army  as  the  French  advanced  upon  Puebla. 

To  form  some  idea  of  the  cruelty  and  injustice  of  this  law 
it  is  only  necessary  to  consider  that,  notwithstanding  the 
fact  that  it  was  promulgated  to  punish  the  black  crime  of 
treason,  its  author  confessed  that  he  had  exceeded  his  pro- 
gram, not  in  justice,  because  he  himself  never  thought  the 
law  just,  but  in  terror,  which  he  thought  necessary  to  instill 


264      WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT    MEXICO 

into  the  minds  of  the  people  at  a  time  when  Mexico  seemed 
to  be  crumbling  to  pieces  through  panic  and  treason. 

Where  was  the  political  acumen  of  the  Carrancista  party 
in  April,  1913,  when  it  decided  to  revive  a  law  which  was 
morally  discountenanced,  and  which  had  been  condemned 
without  appeal  and  without  exception  in  the  nation's  his- 
tory? There  has  never  been  a  liberal,  patriotic  Mexican 
historian  who  has  not  condemned  this  law  even  when  ap- 
plied to  traitors.  Where,  then,  was  the  political  acumen  of 
these  men  who  decided  to  apply,  in  a  civil  constitutionalist 
war,  penal  precepts  applicable  only  to  traitors! 

When  the  Catholic  League,  presided  over  by  the  Due  de 
Guise,  decreed  the  massacre  of  the  Huguenots  on  the  mem- 
orable Eve  of  Saint  Bartholomew,  the  assassins  followed 
the  moral  and  logical  law  of  the  times — the  heretic  must  die 
by  fire  and  the  sword.  Guise  and  Torquemada,  following 
the  political  tenets  of  their  age,  are  respectable  in  compari- 
son with  Carranza  who,  in  the  twentieth  century,  unfurls 
the  banner  of  Constitutionalism  under  the  protection  of  a 
law  that  would  drag  every  Mexican  citizen  who  does  not 
agree  with  him  to  the  block. 

The  Constitutionalism  proclaimed  by  the  Plan  de  Guada- 
lupe  was  the  establishment  of  democracy,  that  is,  the  sov- 
ereignty of  the  people.  If  the  people  are  sovereign,  how  is 
it  possible  for  a  citizen  to  say  to  them:  "Either  you  will 
follow  me  or  I  shall  kill  you,  confiscating  all  your  property 
to  swell  my  own  possessions."  The  people  have  the  inherent 
right  to  rebel  and,  consequently,  an  equal  right  not  to  do 
so.  A  democratic  republic  cannot  harbor  a  citizen,  even 
though  he  be  named  Venustiano  Carranza,  endowed  with 
the  right  to  compel  a  people  to  rebel.  Not  only  did  Senor 
Carranza  not  have  the  right  to  threaten  the  people,  whom 
he  professed  to  look  upon  as  sovereign,  but  he  did  not  have 
the  right  to  threaten  the  most  humble  citizen  of  the  Repub- 
lic. Even  the  people  do  not  possess  this  right.  The  right 


PRESIDENT  WILSON  AND   CARRANZA    265 

'not  to  rebel,  even  if  the  Government  violates  the  Constitu- 
tion a  million  times,  is  a  sacred, >  personal  right. 

Senor  Carranza  and  his  limited  circle  never  could  under- 
stand that  a  Huertista  could  <  be  a  legitimate  Constitution- 
alist. In  point  o'i  fact,  according  to  the  Constitution  pro- 
claimed by  Carranza  and  his  picayune  followers,  the  House 
of  Representatives  enjoys  the  privilege  of  legal  infallibility, 
there  being:  no '.appeal  from  the 'designation  by  this  body  of 
any  special  person  as  President  of  the  Republic,  and  it  was 
this  very  body  that  had  declared  Huerta  the  Constitutional 
President  of  the  Republic  ad  mterlm. 

It  is  true  that  the  action  of  the  House  of  Representatives 
in  this  respect  was  detestable,  worthy  of  contempt  and  exe- 
cration. But  for  the  Constitution  there  are  no  corrupt 
legislatures;  legally  their  actions  are  clean  and  sound,  what- 
ever they  may  be.  The  House  of  Representatives,  like  all 
constitutional  power,  is  absolutely  irresponsible  before  the 
law,  whatever  may  be  the  laws,  decrees  or  agreements  it  may 
formulate.  The  representatives  are  responsible  before  the 
House  for  official  offenses,  but  they  are  absolutely  irrespon- 
sible according  to  the  Constitution  for  whatever  they  may 
say  on  the  floor  of  the  House,  and  for  their  votes,  whatever 
their  import  may  be. 

If  a  legislature  prostitutes  its  sacred  rights  and  legislates 
according  to  its  perverted  instincts,  the  people  have  the  right 
to  rebel  against  it,  or,  as  I  have  said,  not  to  rebel  if  they 
see  fit.  In  any  case  the  Mexican  citizen  is  not  obliged  to 
rebel  even  if  the  entire  populace  has  risen  in  rebellion. 
Senor  Carranza's  assumed  right  to  oblige  all  Mexicans  to 
follow  him  is  nothing  short  of  absurd  in  the  eyes  of  hon- 
est, intelligent  persons.  Even  supposing  that  Huerta  had 
not  represented  a  de  jure  government,  no  one  can  deny  that 
in  March,  1913,  he  represented  a  de  facto  government, 
inasmuch  as  he  ruled  a  nation  of  15,000,000  inhabitants,  with 
the  exception  of  perhaps  400,000.  Every  individual  is  obliged 


266      WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT    MEXICO 

to  recognize  a  de  facto  government.  If  he  does  not  care  to 
fulfill  this  obligation  he  is  at  liberty  to  rebel,  running  the 
risk  of  being  punished  according  to  the  laws  of  this 
government.  If  de  facto  governments  had  not  the  right 
to  punish  infringements  of  their  laws,  there  never  would 
have  been  any  Latin-American  governments,  because  they 
are  nothing  but  de  facto  governments  from  the  moment 
that  they  originate  from  military  coups  or  official  elections. 

Mr.  Fyfe  is  a  good  observer  and  perceives  with  unerring 
eye  how  scandalously  the  Mexicans  abuse  the  term  treason: 
"Each  side  calls  the  other  side  'traitors,'  and  the  only  course 
to  take  with  a  'traitor' — that  is,  a  man  who  differs  from 
your  views — is  to  shoot  him."  *• 

In  an  interview  between  Mr.  Fyfe  and  Senor  Carranza 
the  following  conversation  took  place : 

*  'We  Constitutionalists  refuse  to  recognize  any  president 
who  may  be  returned  at  the  fraudulent  election.  We  shall 
execute  anybody  who  does  recognize  him.' 

"  'I  beg  your  pardon,'  I  said.  'Would  you  kindly  repeat 
your  last  statement?  I  thought  I  must  have  misunder- 
stood it.' 

'  'We  shall,'  the  General  said  calmly  and  as  if  he  were 
making  a  perfectly  natural  remark,  'execute  any  one  who 
recognizes  a  president  unconstitutionally  elected  and  directly 
or  indirectly  guilty  of  participation  in  the  murder  of  Ma- 
dero.'  "  2 

Fyfe  adds:  "Some  two  months  after  my  visit,  General 
Carranza  was  interviewed  by  a  Major  Archer-Shee,  a  Brit- 
ish Member  of  Parliament,  and  being  told  that  this  remark 
of  his  had  had  a  bad  effect,  he  denied  having  made  it.  I 
bear  him  no  malice  for  this.  I  expected  that  he  would  deny 
it,  if  ever  he  were  told  how  strangely  it  sounded  in  English 
and  American  ears."  3 

1  Hamilton  Fyfe,  The  Real  Mexico,  p.  18. 

2  Idem,  p.  17. 

3  Idem,  p.  17. 


PRESIDENT  WILSON  AND  CARRANZA    267 

How  advantageous  it  would  have  been  if  Senor  Carranza 
had  looked  upon  Mexican  society  with  the  same  respect  he 
looked  upon  the  English  Parliamentary  member,  Major 
Archer-Shee,  so  that  he  might  have  repealed  a  law,  the  in- 
voking of  which  was  a  discredit  to  him,  and  will  forever 
remain  a  stain  upon  the  civilization  of  Mexico. 

Senor  Fernandez  Giiell  generously  contributes  to  our 
sociology  a  sample  of  our  abominable  mental  political  atti- 
tude. Senor  Carranza's  decree  reviving  the  horrible  law  of 
January  20,  1862,  proves  that  the  First  Chief  of  the  Con- 
stitutionalist army  has  been  liberty's  worst  enemy  in  Mexico. 
Nevertheless,  Senor  Fernandez  Giiell  calls  Senor  Carranza 
"the  old  and  robust  oak  of  liberty."  When  an  ex-director 
of  the  National  Library  of  the  City  of  Mexico  confuses  ter- 
ror with  liberty,  it  means  that  the  Mexican  nation  is  lost  in 
the  hands  of  reformers  who  do  not  pretend  to  restore  lib- 
erty, but  to  introduce  the  barbarities  that  characterized  the 
most  atrocious  period  of  the  Roman  Empire.  Senor  Fer- 
nandez Giiell  is  much  more  felicitous  when  he  announces  to 
the  world  that  Senor  Carranza  shed  "una  lagrima  de  bronce" 
(a  molten  tear)  upon  Madero's  grave.  It  is  fitting  that  a 
man  who  revived  a  law  of  terror  should  be  converted,  when 
he  melts  into  tears,  into  a  munition  factory. 

THE  FALSE  APOSTLE 

The  most  plausible  exposition  I  have  come  across  of  Senor 
Carranza's  dominant  reform  idea  is  to  be  found  in  Mr. 
Fyfe's  book.  Speaking  to  the  correspondent  of  The  London 
Times,  Mr.  Fyfe  said,  referring  to  the  revolution:  "It  has 
its  roots  in  social  causes.  The  land,  which  was  formerly 
divided  among  the  mass  of  the  people,  has  been  seized  by  a 
few.  The  owners  of  it  compel  those  who  are  working  for 
them  to  buy  the  necessities  of  life  from  them  alone.  They 
lay  a  burden  of  debt  upon  the  poor  people,  and  as  they  owe 


268      WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT    MEXICO    tl 

them  money  they  cannot  get  away.  If  they  try  to  go  away, 
they  can  be  brought  back.  They  can  be  put  in  prison."  1- 

This  explanation,  however,  is  untenable. 

Senor  Carranza  did  not  emerge  from  a  Mexican  Bastile 
where  he  had  been  incarcerated  for  forty  years  on  account 
of  his  reform  ideas.  Senor  Carranza  was  for  many  years  a 
senator  in  the  Federal  Congress  under  the  Diaz  dictator- 
ship, and  could  have  introduced  a  reform  bill  embracing  the 
land,  question,  the  company  stores  and  the  abuses  practised 
by  landowners  and  proprietors  against  debtors,  especially  as 
the  Constitution  forbids  any  manner  of  punishment  for  debt. 
Senor  Carranza's  bill  might  or  might  not  have  been  taken 
up  for  consideration  by  the; dictatorship.  In  all  probability 
it  .would  have  been  well  received;  /considering  what  I  have 
already  said  about  the  ;  recommendations  Senor  Carlos 
Paeheco  had  made,  through  the ,  Department  of  Fomento,  to 
the  President,  advising  the,  formation  of  small  landholdings. 
I  have  also  called  attention  to  the  fact  that  the  law  of  1886 
advised  the  division  of  the  land  to  raise  the  standard  of  agri- 
culture, and  thus  "institute,  a  .radical  means  to  combat  the 
effects  of  the  depreciation  of  silver.  In  my  book,  El  por- 
venir  de  las  naciones  latino-americanas  ante  la  politico  de 
los  Estados  Unidos  (The  Future  of  the  American  Nations 
in  View  of  the  Policy  of  the  United  States),  published  in 
1899,  I  proved  that  Mexico  would  never  attain  permanent 
prosperity  without  the  establishment  of  small  landholdings, 
and  that  to  accomplish  this  the  Government  should  proceed 
at  once  to  construct  large  irrigation  plants.  After  the  pub- 
lication of  my  book,  the  Department  of  Fomento  published 
treatises  on  the  subject,  insisting  that  irrigation  was  necessary 
to  make  possible  -the  distribution  of  the  land  without  bring- 
ing about  a  disaster- — the  death  of  the  people  by  starvation; 
During  the  dictatorship,  Senor  Carranza,  the  reformer,  was 
either  not  a  reformer  or  an  absolutely  inactive  one. 

1  Hamilton  Fyfe,  The  Real  Mexico,  p.  16. 


PRESIDENT  WILSON  AND   CARRANZA    269 

Senor  Carranza  took  possession  of  the  government  of  the 
state  of  Coahuila  in  June,  1911,  and  kept  it  until  March 
19,  1913.  According  to  the  Constitution,  the  states  have 
the  right  to  introduce  constitutional  reform  bills  into  the 
Federal  Congress.  Why  did  not  Senor  Carranza  during  the 
period  of  his  governorship  introduce  bills  through  the  state 
legislature  to  be  laid  before  the  Federal  Congress,  outlining 
the  reforms  needed  to  save  the  country?  Why  did  not  the 
senators  and  representatives  from  Coahuila,  if  they  really 
professed  reform  principles,  avail  themselves  of  the  privilege 
granted  them  by  the  Constitution  of  introducing  into  Con- 
gress any  bill  they  might  see  fit  to  bring  about  reforms? 
Why  did  the  Carrancista  press  in  the  state  of  Coahuila 
never  take  up  these  questions  of  reform  when  it  was  per- 
fectly free  to  do  so?  Why  did  not  the  journalist,  Senor 
Ignacio  Herrerias,  to  whom  Don  Venustiano  Carranza  paid 
two  hundred  pesos  monthly  to  eulogize  him  in  the  City  of 
(Mexico  newspapers,  ever  open  the  reform  campaign  in  the 
columns  of  La  Prensa,  where  I  had  installed  him  as  editor- 
in-chief  ? 

Emiliano  Zapata  issued  the  Plan  de  Ayala  on  November 
25,  1911.  This  embodied  the  distribution  of  lands  and  the 
waging  of  war  against  the  landowning  system,  with  the  hope 
of  arousing  popular  feeling,  not  only  in  Morelos  but  all 
over  the  country.  He  has  upheld  his  plan  for  more  than 
four  years  by  fire  and  blood,  resisting  the  blandishments  of 
three  administrations.  Why  did  not  Don  Venustiano  Car- 
ranza, the  governor  of  Coahuila,  who  professed  the  same 
reform  principles,  join  forces  with  him  and  oblige  Madero 
to  grant  the  saving  reforms  demanded  by  the  popular  class? 

It  is  shocking  that  the  great  reformer,  Don  Venustiano 
Carranza,  a  state  governor,  one  of  the  most  prominent  mem- 
bers of  the  Maderista  faction,  who  possessed  the  right  and 
influence  to  make  himself  heard,  and  who  was  bound  to  speak 
from  the  moment  that  Zapata  issued  his  proclamation — at 


270      WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT    MEXICO 

the  time  when  his  influence  would  have  been  decisive,  with- 
out shedding  a  drop  of  blood,  without  sacrificing  a  dollar, 
without  the  slightest  resistance  from  the  landowner — should 
have  remained  as  indifferent  to  the  agrarian  question  as 
though  the  subject  under  discussion  were  some  regulation 
concerning  the  seal  fisheries  in  Greenland.  But  no  sooner 
was  he  deprived  of  his  governorship  by  Huerta's  triumph, 
than  he  set  to  work  to  organize  a  tremendous  civil  war  in 
order  to  establish  reforms  he  might  have  obtained  during 
Madero's  administration  if  he  had  been  a  real  and  disinter- 
ested reformer. 

The  question  has  a  still  graver  aspect.  I  have  spoken  of 
the  bill  presented  to  Congress  in  President  Huerta's  name 
in  March,  1913,  by  Sefior  Toribio  Esquivel  Obregon,  ask- 
ing it  to  authorize  the  appropriation  of  several  million  pesos 
to  buy  lands  from  the  planters,  to  be  divided  at  the  Govern- 
ment's expense  among  the  poor.  From  the  moment  of  the 
introduction  of  this  bill  it  was  Senor  Carranza's  place,  if 
patriotism  alone  influenced  him,  to  have  notified  Huerta 
that  he  would  remain  under  arms  until  the  law  he  had  in- 
troduced in  favor  of  the  poor  had  been  approved.  But  as 
Senor  Carranza  was  as  much  interested  in  reforms  as  he  was 
in  the  whereabouts  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  planet  Jupiter, 
he  enkindled  instead  the  most  atrocious  civil  war  that  Amer- 
ica has  ever  known.  The  real  principle  involved  was  the 
"Step  down,  that  I  may  step  up"  principle,  of  which  I  have 
already  spoken.  President  Wilson  did  not  seem  able  to  see 
that  the  agrarian  question  could  not  possibly  be  the  funda- 
mental cause  of  the  war,  as  both  Huerta  and  Carranza  had 
included  the  distribution  of  the  lands  as  part  of  their  pro- 
grams, but  that  the  real  motive  was  Huerta's  desire  to  con- 
tinue as  dictator,  and  Carranza's  to  attain  the  dictatorship. 
In  Mexico,  even  among  people  of  the  most  ordinary  intelli- 
gence, it  is  well  known  that  the  social  question  has  never  been 
the  true  political  motive  underlying  the  revolution.  It  has 


PRESIDENT  WILSON  AND  CARRANZA    271 

been  used  as  a  cloak  for  the  ambition  of  two  men  who  have 
deluged  Mexico  with  blood:  Huerta,  at  the  head  of  soldiery; 
Carranza,  at  the  head  of  the  demagogues. 


THE  TRUE  ANTI-SOCIAL   FORCES  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 

Senor  Carranza's  law  of  terror  failed  completely.  Seeing 
himself  without  the  support  of  any  of  the  men  of  prestige, 
the  First  Chief  had  recourse  to  the  most  influential  man  out- 
side the  former  Madero  faction,  Dr.  Francisco  Vasquez  Go- 
mez. Dr.  Vasquez  Gomez  replied  in  a  letter  published  in 
the  United  States  on  June  6,  1913,  that  he  could  not  sup- 
port the  Plan  de  Guadalupe  because  he  was  a  man  of  fixed 
principles  and  not  inclined  to  support  personal  causes,  as  the 
one  he  had  proclaimed  under  the  misnomer  of  Plan  de  Gua- 
dalupe unquestionably  was. 

The  revolution  was  composed  of  three  elements:  The  de- 
termination of  the  state  of  Sonora,  or  rather  of  the  men  who 
had  lately  obtained  the  headway  there,  to  preserve  its  sov- 
ereignty and  independence  at  any  cost;  the  Villa  faction, 
which  represented  the  Madero  family  and  which  sought, 
with  President  Wilson's  support,  to  restore  it  to  power ;  and 
Senor  Don  Venustiano  Carranza,  loyal  and  incorruptible 
partisan  of  the  interests  and  ambitions  of  Senor  Don  Car- 
ranza Venustiano. 

The  proceedings  of  these  three  factions,  all  of  them  an- 
tagonistic to  the  only  one  having  real  principles — that  of 
Zapata — were  ignoble,  anti-social  and  consequently  un- 
patriotic. Demagogism,  with  its  deformed  and  poisoned 
mentality,  charged  itself  with  the  mission  of  interpreting  the 
real  principles  of  the  revolution. 

It  is  well  known  that  the  ruling  passion  of  barbarous 
peoples  is  hate.  When  these  peoples  fight  for  religion,  they 
are  dominated  by  hatred  of  the  heretic.  When  they  fight 


272      WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT   MEXICO 

for  liberty,  they  are  impelled  by  hatred  of  those  who  govern 
them.  When  they  fight  for  their  country,  they  are  urged  by 
hatred  of  the  alien.  When  they  fight  for  the  welfare  of  the 
disinherited,  they  are  really  impelled  by  hatred  of  the  rich. 
When  they  fight  for  socialism,  they  are  violently  incited  by 
the  social,  economic,  intellectual,  physical  and  moral  in- 
equalities they  see  about  them.  Hatred  is  the  propelling 
force  of  the  barbarian  soul.  The  revolutionists  of  1913,  be- 
ing the  product  of  the  demagogic  schools,  knew  well  what 
course  to  pursue,  and  they  proceeded  to  spread  their  propa- 
ganda of  hatred  among  the  people. 

As  we  already  know,  the  Cientificos  no  longer  existed  in 
1913.  Of  the  rich  men  who  formed  the  political  group 
upon  whom  responsibility  might  fall — political,  never  crim- 
inal, however — only  four  remained.  All  were  past  fifty 
years  of  age,  rich,  enjoying  a  high  social  position,  of  pacific 
tendencies  and  surrounded  by  an  impregnable  wall  of  skep- 
ticism, capable  of  withstanding  the  fire  of  human  or  super- 
human batteries  of  ambition.  The  demagogues  had  devoted 
eight  years  to  a  campaign  of  vilification  against  these  men, 
creating  against  them  in  the  minds  of  the  people  a  hatred 
verging  on  the  infernal.  The  opportunity  was  not  to  be  lost. 
Before  these  fires  of  hate  became  extinct  it  was  necessary  to 
impress  upon  the  minds  of  the  people,  upon  that  of  President 
Wilson,  the  American  people  and  the  whole  world,  that  this 
formidable  Cientifico  party  existed  in  Mexico,  bent  upon  ex- 
ploiting the  unfortunate  Mexican  people — already  in  the 
lowest  state  of  misery  by  exploitation — to  the  point  of  com- 
plete extermination. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  the  agitators,  wishing  to  cast 
as  much  odium  as  possible  upon  General  Diaz's  administra- 
tion, had  stirred  up  the  Boxer  feeling  among  the  people.  But 
as  Mr.  Wilson,  the  protector  of  the  revolution,  was  the 
President  of  the  Americans  it  was  better,  as  Orestes  Pereira 
explained  at  Durango  in  July,  1913,  to  leave  the  gringos  (a 


PRESIDENT  WILSON  AND   CARRANZA    273 

name  given  to  Americans)  alone  for  the  time  being  and  turn 
their  attention  to  the  destruction  of  the  English,  the  Chinese, 
and  above  all  the  Spaniards,  commonly  known  as  gachupines. 

The  creation  of  this  fictitious  party  had  its  advantages,  as 
all  that  was  necessary  was  to  class  every  one  as  rich  Cien- 
tificos  or  as  sympathizers  of  the  Cientificos  to  be  able  to  rob 
them  unmolested,  making  President  Wilson,  the  American 
people  and  the  Spanish-American  Republics,  believe  that 
they,  the  representatives  of  the  revolution,  were  punishing  a 
band  of  iniquitous  politicians  who  justly  deserved  it.  These 
men  had  robbed  the  virtuous  Mexican  people  of  all  their 
wealth,  and  justice  demanded  that  all  their  ill-gotten  goods 
should  be  taken  from  them  and  restored  to  the  people.  There 
can  be  no  doubt  that  this  artful  manoeuvre  on  the  part  of  a 
set  of  ruffians  produced  a  tremendous  effect  in  the  United 
States,  and  caused  a  particular  smile  of  self-satisfaction  to 
light  up  Mr.  Wilson's  puritanical  countenance. 

Notwithstanding  religious  dogmas,  altruistic  doctrines,  the 
enchanting,  romantic  spirit  of  charity,  and  the  cross  currents 
of  many  interests,  it  is  undeniable  that  up  to  the  present  day 
the  white  race  is  a  privileged  race.  I  do  not  know,  nor  do  I 
seek  to  know,  when  or  how  the  prestige  of  the  Caucasian 
race  will  be  destroyed.  It  will  not  be  an  easy  task,  as  it  is 
artistic,  and  more  or  less  heir  to  classic  Hellenistic  aspira- 
tions. The  world  is  not  yet  sufficiently  virtuous  or  ascetic 
to  give  the  same  place  in  the  social  scale  to  the  black,  com- 
pelled as  yet  to  be  satisfied  simply  with  equal  civil  rights,  as 
to  the  fair  white  representative  of  Athenian  graces. 

Beauty  is  the  creator  of  rights,  perhaps  immutable,  the 
creator  of  that  state  of  depression  felt  by  colored  races, 
which  gives  rise  to  a  sentiment  of  the  most  refined  odium. 
This  bursts  into  flame  whenever  it  meets  with  sufficient  re- 
sistence  to  ignite  it,  and  is  a  powerful  lever  in  fomenting  and 
developing  revolutions  in  countries  inhabited  by  the  privi- 
leged white  race  and  by  a  race,  humbled  because  of  its  color. 


274      WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT   MEXICO 

The  Mexican  revolutionists  made  the  most  of  this  great 
force,  holding  up  to  the  natives  the  iniquity  of  the  whites, 
who  had  exploited  them  for  four  hundred  years. 

When  the  Mexican  Constitutent  Congress  discussed  the 
Federal  electoral  law  in  1856,  Senor  Ignacio  Ramirez,  an 
implacable  reformer  and  a  talented,  high-minded  politician, 
impugned  the  indirect  electoral  system,  basing  his  objection 
upon  the  fact  that  there  is  no  real  vote  of  the  people  except 
when  the  election  is  direct,  and  that  all  really  free  countries 
had  recognized  this  fact  in  their  electoral  laws.  The  com- 
mission which  sustained  the  opposite  opinion  frankly  replied 
that  the  indirect  election  was  necessary,  because  if  the  direct 
vote  were  granted  to  the  people,  it  would  be  the  parish 
priests,  the  chapters,  the  bishops,  and  the  guardians  and 
priors  of  convents  who  would  name  the  representatives,  sen- 
ators, magistrates,  aldermen  and  the  president  of  the  Repub- 
lic, and  that  the  granting  of  the  direct  vote  to  the  illiterate, 
fanatically  Catholic  people,  would  be  signing  the  death  war- 
rant of  the  glorious  democratic  revolution  proclaimed  at 
Ayutla.  Senor  Ramirez  replied  that  democracies  cannot  be 
farces;  that  all  governments  based  upon  the  opposition's 
plan  were  either  corrupt  or  tyrannical,  or  both;  that  if  the 
Mexican  people  were  not  fitted  for  democracy,  a  Constitu- 
tion adapted  to  their  capabilities  should  be  drafted ;  and  that 
if  the  direct  vote  were  not  granted  to  the  people  nothing  but 
a  fraud  would  result  from  the  indirect  vote,  leaving  the 
people  condemned  to  the  rule  of  political  charlatans,  because 
any  one  guilty  of  such  a  fraud  could  not  be  anything  but  a 
knave. 

The  delegates  decided  in  favor  of  the  indirect  vote,  ex- 
cusing themselves  by  saying  that  it  was  better  to  educate  the 
people  in  democratic  principles  from  the  start,  and  that  in 
no  wise  could  this  be  better  accomplished  than  by  the  in- 
direct electoral  vote. 

Senor  Ramirez's  prophecy  was  verified.     When  the  Ma- 


PRESIDENT  WILSON  AND  CARRANZA    275 

dero  revolution  triumphed,  all  honest  persons  who  believed 
in  good  faith  that  the  Mexican  people  were  now  ready  for 
democracy,  resolved  that  the  direct  vote  should  triumph. 
The  demagogic  corporation,  knowing  that  the  masses,  cut 
loose  from  the  influence  of  the  clergy,  can  be  molded  to 
their  views — as  happens  everywhere  when  the  voter  is  un- 
worthy of  the  vote — energetically  supported  the  reform 
of  the  electoral  law,  aiming  at  having  the  elections  of 
1912  carried  out  in  conformity  with  the  strict  rules  of 
the  direct  popular  vote.  The  result  was  a  surprise  to 
honest  liberals  and  to  the  demagogic  herd.  They  believed 
that  after  forty-nine  years  of  an  anti-Catholic  policy,  an 
atheistic  press,  and  obligatory  lay  schools,  the  popular  masses 
had  been  almost  totally  emancipated  from  the  tutelage  of  the 
clergy.  The  elections  of  1912  proved  that  the  clergy  pos- 
sessed the  power  to  organize  a  real,  disciplined  political 
party,  and  to  carry  the  Federal  and  local  elections  in  almost 
all  the  states.  If  the  Catholics  did  not  have  a  complete  tri- 
umph in  the  elections  of  1912,  it  was  owing  to  pressure 
brought  to  bear  by  the  Maderista  Government,  and  the 
frauds  practised  by  the  Porra  against  the  Catholics.  The 
situation  was  clear  to  all. 

In  order  to  make  democracy  with  the  free  vote  possible 
in  Mexico,  it  is  necessary  for  the  Catholics  to  be  a  perma- 
nent political  factor  because  they  are  in  the  majority  and 
are  strong  enough  to  organize  legislative  bodies,  and  to  pre- 
vent any  other  powerful,  well-disciplined  political  body  from 
obtaining  a  complete  triumph  in  the  parliamentary  field. 
What  the  Mexican  Catholics  lack  is  the  power  to  rise  up 
in  arms  and  assert  their  rights  when  the  liberal  minority 
nullifies  their  honestly  won  triumphs  by  means  of  frauds  and 
violence.  This  lack  of  assertive  power  is  due  to  the  fact 
that  the  Indians  and  mestizos  of  the  rural  districts,  who 
vote  with  the  Catholic  party,  do  not  go  to  the  polls  pistol 
in  hand  as  their  opponents  are  ready  to  do.  Owing  to  that 


276      WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT    MEXICO 

stony  passivity,  of  which  I  have  already  spoken,  they  will 
vote  for  or  against  Catholicism,  just  as  they  will  fight  for 
or  against  it,  if  superior  authority  brings  pressure  to  bear 
upon  them. 

The  politicians  know  that  they  cannot  be  the  controlling 
power  in  a  real,  or  even  in  a  corrupt  democracy,  so  long  as 
the  majority  of  the  Mexicans  are  Catholics,  and  this  explains 
their  anxiety  to  destroy  Catholicity  among  the  popular 
classes  by  any  and  every  possible  means.  As  the  lay  schools 
did  not  accomplish  this,  the  revolutionists  have  had  recourse 
to  another  species  of  anti-Catholic  education  of  the  masses 
carried  on  by  desecrating  churches,  breaking  images,  outrag- 
ing nuns,  expelling  and  assassinating  priests,  closing  churches, 
and  even  by  prohibiting  private  worship.  From  this  also 
springs  the  cry  for  more  lay  schools.  To  the  reformer  "re- 
generation of  the  people  by  the  school"  means  getting  con- 
trol of  the  conscience  of  the  popular  class  by  driving  Catho- 
licity out. 

This  accounts  for  the  hatred  of  the  political  revolutionists 
for  Catholicism,  and  their  care  to  encourage  the  bandits  of 
the  north  to  commit  all  kinds  of  outrages  against  the  clergy 
and  the  Catholics  in  that  section. 

Having  organized  this  campaign  of  hate,  not  against 
Huerta — because  he  was  an  old  man  and  by  that  time  utterly 
devoid  of  social  prestige — but  against  other  menacing  forces, 
the  agitators  proceeded  to  stir  the  populace  through  another 
channel. 

If  the  Plan  de  Guadalupe  had  made  the  distribution  of 
lands  its  watchword,  it  would  have  been  coldly  received  in 
the  north,  where  something  more  enticing  had  to  be  held  out. 

Any  vague,  undefined,  mysterious  promise  is  a  great  mo- 
tive force  among  illiterate,  practically  uncivilized  peoples, 
composed  in  great  majority  of  inferior  races,  and  the  Mex- 
ican people  were  virtually  hypnotized  with  high-sounding 
promises.  "This  revolution  is  being  fought  for  the  poor." 


PRESIDENT  WILSON  AND  CARRANZA    277 

"Once  the  revolution  triumphs  the  poor  will  never  know  suf- 
fering again."  "The  reforms  which  the  revolution  is  secretly 
planning  will  lead  the  poor  to  unlimited  prosperity."  "The 
revolution  must  necessarily  be  the  source  of  unbounded  ben- 
efits for  the  poor."  "The  world  will  be  amazed  to  see  the 
reforms  that  the  Mexican  revolution  will  institute  exclu- 
sively in  favor  of  the  poor."  "The  poor  the  world  over  will 
envy  the  poor  in  Mexico,  when  the  revolution  is  crowned 
with  triumph."  This  string  of  absurdities  produced  magic 
effects  in  the  mind  of  the  populace.  They  hailed  with  joy 
the  destruction  of  their  country,  of  the  restricted  liberties 
which  up  to  then  they  had  enjoyed,  of  their  meagre  posses- 
sions, of  their  work,  of  the  virtue  of  their  wives  and  daught- 
ers, and  of  all  the  traditions  that  tempered  the  sordiness  of 
•their  lives  and  cast  a  halo  of  tenderness  over  their  homes, 
notwithstanding  their  poverty  and  misery. 


THE  CRIMINAL  BAND  OF  PRIVATE  SECRETARIES 

The  revolution  never  formulated  its  program  by  means  of 
a  logical,  well-drawn-up  document,  characterized  by  serious 
political  purpose.  Senor  Carranza  has  not  been  the  "mili- 
tary genius"  of  the  revolution,  its  thinker  or  its  reformer; 
neither  has  he  been  the  instigator  of  the  revolutionary  propa- 
ganda I  mentioned.  He  has  not  grasped  it  even  now, 
and  never  will.  Senor  Carranza  has  never  seen  any  of  the 
powerful  machines,  expelling  the  foul  gases  of  hatred  and 
cupidity,  designed  by  the  revolutionists.  Never  has  he  put 
foot  in  this  "garage"  to  ride  forth  into  chaos  at  the  rate  of 
one  hundred  miles  an  hour  in  one  of  these  high-powered 
machines.  For  Senor  Carranza,  as  for  Mr.  Wilson  and  Mr. 
Bryan  and  Messrs.  Bayard  Hale,  Lind  and  House,  all  the 
outrages  committed  by  the  revolutionists  are  trifles,  pecca- 
dillos, excusable  excesses;  even  criminal  actions  are  urgent 


278      WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT   MEXICO 

and  indispensable,  and  the  inevitable  consequences  of  war. 
These  gentlemen  do  not  seem  to  see  that  in  previous  Mex- 
ican revolutions,  as  in  all  other  revolutions,  the  outrages 
have  been  the  work  of  the  lower  elements,  condemned  by  the 
higher  as  excesses  worthy  of  punishment ;  whereas  the  fright- 
ful thing  about  the  present  revolution  is  that  these  crimes 
have  been  raised  to  the  standard  of  a  dogma.  Unlawful  trans- 
gressions have  become  a  principle ;  the  violation  of  women,  a 
right;  the  martyrdom  of  the  innocent,  a  punishment;  the 
spoliation  of  the  peaceful  proprietor,  the  vindication  of  the 
people ;  the  massacre  of  the  foreigners,  undue  excitement,  pro- 
vided, always,  they  are  not  Americans;  and  the  enrichment 
of  the  chiefs  by  public  and  private  theft,  is  nothing,  and 
should  not  be  considered  as  anything  but  the  reward  of  their 
eminent  services  in  having  given  freedom  to  the  people. 

The  real  revolutionary  program  is  anonymous.  It  has 
been  composed  by  the  rabble,  not  the  low,  street  rabble,  but 
the  proletarian,  educated  rabble,  vicious,  cowardly,  envious, 
dishonest,  and  debauched.  This  rabble  is  composed  of 
shyster  lawyers,  penniless  students,  with  outstanding  debts 
at  all  the  saloons  and  cheap  eating-houses;  unkempt  petti- 
foggers, with  a  summons  out  against  them  for  swindling  and 
forgery;  mediocre,  provincial  journalists;  discredited  Mexican 
Masons,  looking  for  bread  and  loot;  Mexican  Protestant 
ministers,  well  versed  in  the  Bible  of  vice;  school  teachers, 
the  product  of  the  Normal  School,  glutted  with  envy  and 
rancor;  in  short,  of  all  that  invidious,  lettered  horde  which 
General  Porfirio  Diaz,  instead  of  smothering  or  scattering, 
protected,  strengthened  and  raised  up  to  the  point  of  becom- 
ing a  menace  to  him,  and  which  he  allowed  General  Reyes 
to  snatch  from  him  at  the  end  to  help  further  the  ambitions 
of  the  ever-active  governor  of  Nuevo  Leon. 

I  desire  to  state  that  I  am  referring  only  to  those  who 
acted  in  the  capacity  of  private  secretaries  to  leading  bandits, 
because  among  the  private  secretaries  of  the  rude,  honest  guer- 


PRESIDENT  WILSON  AND   CARRANZA    279 

rilleros  (leaders  of  guerrilla  bands)  or  of  insignificant  ban- 
dits, there  have  been  and  still  are  private  secretaries  who  can 
lay  claim  to  some  merit,  and  who  have  prevented,  so  far  as 
was  possible,  unjust  persecutions,  flagrant  abuses  and  the 
submersion  of  civilization. 

The  "private  secretary"  becomes  the  bandit's  monitor.  He 
introduces  him  to  the  gay  life  of  the  city,  the  latest  cocktail, 
orgies  a  la  mode,  and  intrigues  with  the  demi-mondaines  of 
the  stage.  He  initiates  him  into  the  mysteries  of  the  social 
question;  of  political  spoliation;  of  the  landowning  system; 
of  confiscation  of  the  Cientificos'  property,  for  his  own  bene- 
fit, not  that  of  the  people;  of  assassination,  premediated  or 
unpremediated,  personally  or  through  an  agent;  of  the  re- 
ligious question;  of  the  pornographic  question;  of  the  neces- 
sity of  regenerating  the  people  by  means  of  the  school;  of 
assassination,  in  the  name  of  liberty,  of  all  those  who  are  par- 
tisans of  the  Cientificos.  He  fosters  his  ambition  to  the 
point  of  making  him  aspire  to  a  governorship  or  to  the  presi- 
dency itself.  He  explains  to  him  how  theft  may  be  success- 
fully carried  on  by  means  of  force,  forgery,  falsified  inven- 
tories, violence  and  kidnapping.  He  steals  from  him  when 
he  is  asleep  or  intoxicated,  and  transforms  himself  into  his 
treasurer,  his  administrator,  his  counsellor,  his  tutor,  and 
into  any  species  of  thing  that  gives  him  an  opportunity  to  ex- 
ploit his  uncouth  master  with  veritable  Hebraic  cupidity. 
The  private  secretary  is  the  evil  genius  of  the  bandit.  He 
is  cowardly,  vicious  and  criminal,  and  infects  with  his  very 
presence.  The  bandit  may  be  brave,  generous,  a  diamond  in 
the  rough,  a  rude  creature  with  a  great  heart,  the  potential- 
ities of  a  patriot,  the  germ  of  a  real  reformer,  a  savage  sus- 
ceptible of  mental  development.  The  private  secretary  de- 
stroys every  particle  of  natural  goodness  there  may  be  in  him, 
as  his  dismal  role  is  to  extinguish  the  real  light  of  liberty,  to 
throw  the  mantle  of  chaos  over  his  country,  burrowing  into 
her  heart  like  an  invisible  worm.  By  dint  of  catering  to  his 


280      WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT   MEXICO 

basest  passions  the   private  secretary  becomes   the  bandit's 
absolute  master. 

I  have  said  that  in  countries  where  the  supreme  power  has 
been  won  by  force,  the  peace  that  follows  is  a  degradation. 
When  those  who  triumph  are  the  bandits  of  the  popular  and 
sub-popular  classes,  the  masters  of  their  victories  are  the  pri- 
vate secretaries,  and,  consequently,  they  are  the  true  masters 
of  the  situation — masters  of  Sefior  Don  Venustiano  Car- 
ranza,  masters  of  President  Wilson's  will,  of  Mr.  Bryan's 
conscience  and  of  the  impressions  of  the  American  public 
with  regard  to  Mexico's  savage  drama. 


CHAPTER  III 

THE    COLLAPSE    OF   PRESIDENT   WILSON'S 
MEXICAN   POLICY 

THE  GREAT   PLAN   TO   REDEEM   THE   EIGHTY-FIVE   PER  CENT 

IN  virtue  of  the  august  Monroe  Doctrine  the  United 
States  Government  figures  in  the  role  of  the  all-pow- 
erful proxy  oi  the  European  Governments,  with 
faculties  to  act  in  questions  relating  to  Latin-American  na- 
tions, questions  that  might  even  involve  the  respective  nations 
in  war.  Never  has  a  loyal  proxy  been  known  to  protect 
those  who  have  threatened  the  lives  and  interests  of  his  con- 
stituents; nevertheless,  Mr.  Wilson  has  protected  the  Mexi- 
can bandits,  who  have  openly  and  shamelessly  attacked 
foreigners,  especially  Spaniards.  Never  has  a  civilized  man 
been  known  to  countenance  religious  persecution  in  the  twen- 
tieth century,  and,  as  the  Chief  Executive  of  one  of  the  most 
powerful  nations  of  the  world,  to  consent  to  outrages  that 
wound  the  sensibilities  of  300,000,000  Catholics,  especially 
as  15,000,000  of  these  are  citizens  of  the  country  over  which 
he  rules,  and  are  deserving  of  more  than  ordinary  consid- 
eration, and  of  not  being  affronted  by  seeing  their  official 
head  giving  aid  to  a  set  of  bandits  who  have  been  guilty  of 
the  most  revolting  persecution  of  the  Catholic  Church  in 
Mexico.  Never  has  the  president  of  a  nation  of  85,000,000 
whites,  privileged  to  make  felt  their  superiority  over  12,000,- 
ooo  blacks,  been  known  to  encourage  a  caste  war  which 

281 


282      WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT   MEXICO 

has  for  its  object  the  extermination  of  the  white  race  in 
another  country.  Never  has  the  president  of  an  individualis- 
tic democracy,  which  upholds  the  doctrine  of  the  inviolabil- 
ity of  private  property,  been  known  to  encourage,  in  a  nation 
bordering  upon  its  own  territory,  the  development  of  anti- 
social doctrines  and  actions  which  may  result  in  serious 
damage  to  his  own  country.  Never  has  a  reputable  govern- 
ment been  known  to  avail  itself  of  means  altogether  un- 
worthy of  its  position  to  prevent  a  government  like  that  of 
Mexico  from  negotiating  and  placing  loans  in  Europe,  when 
a  state  of  war  did  not  exist  between  the  two  nations,  espe- 
cially as  representative  Mexican  society  hoped  by  means  of 
these  loans  to  enable  the  government  to  establish  peace  and 
guarantee  the  security  to  which  they  were  entitled.  Never 
has  a  politician  of  the  most  pronounced  puritanical  type, 
after  having  pledged  his  honor  before  the  world  to  respect 
a  nation's  sovereignty,  been  known  to  send  a  note  such  as 
that  which  President  Wilson  sent  to  the  Huerta  Govern- 
ment, commanding  the  President  to  suspend  hostilities  at 
once,  to  renounce  the  presidency,  to  arrange  immediately  for 
an  election,  and  under  no  condition  to  enter  the  political 
field  as  a  candidate.  Never  has  a  government,  after 
having  reached  the  point  of  applying  moral  force  to  a  weaker 
nation  to  intimidate  it,  been  known  to  decide,  when  the 
weaker  nation  rejected  with  dignity  the  affront  to  its  sov- 
ereignty, to  lower  itself  by  offering,  because  it  is  an  uncon- 
ditional pacifist,  to  obtain  pecuniary  aid  for  the  outraged 
government  if  it  will  only  yield  and  avoid  a  declaration  of 
war.  Mr.  Fyfe  says,  with  an  ironical  smile  that  ought  to 
wound  the  amour  propre  of  the  President  of  the  United 
States:  "The  general  feeling  in  Mexico  City,  especially  after 
the  President's  Message  to  Congress,  in  which  he  blandly 
ignores  the  United  States,  was,  if  I  may  adopt  a  metaphor 
from  'poker,'  that  Washington's  'bluff  had  been  called,'  and 
that  it  had  nothing  in  its  hand.  So  far  as  can  be  seen  at 


THE   COLLAPSE   OF  WILSON'S   POLICY    283 

present,  then,  Mr.  Wilson's  desire  'to  triumph  as  the  friend 
of  Mexico'  has  done  good  to  nobody,  excepting  the  revo- 
lutionists, whom  it  has  encouraged.  To  fight  for  a  prin- 
ciple is  magnificent,  but  it  is  not  politics."  1 

When  General  Huerta  rejected  President  Wilson's  per- 
emptory orders,  a  great  wave  of  applause  swept  over  Mex- 
ico, Latin-America,  Europe  and  Japan,  giving  Huerta  a 
prestige  as  a  ruler  that  he  holds  to  this  day.  No  one  ex- 
pected that  the  pigmy,  harassed  by  internal  enemies,  by  the 
contempt  of  public  opinion,  by  the  gloomy  looks  of  the  ter- 
rorized community,  beaten  down  by  everything  that  unset- 
tles, weakens  and  crushes,  would  say  to  the  omnipotent 
President  of  the  United  States:  "I  shall  not  obey.  I  shall 
abide  by  international  law,  and  for  the  present  I  rely  upon 
the  moral  power  of  justice."  As  his  policy  was  what  it  was, 
peace  at  any  price,  cost  what  it  might,  President  Wilson  had 
received  a  disconcerting  check.  Huerta  was  original,  ex- 
traordinary, a  species  without  zoological  classification.  It 
was  his  undoing  that  he  did  not,  defying  President  Wilson, 
resolve  to  fight,  even  with  the  certainty  of  assured  defeat. 
Huerta  was  not  frightened  by  the  American  army.  He  al- 
ways said  to  his  ministers:  "The  Americans  have  no  army 
and  never  will  have  one.  They  make  a  commercial  busi- 
ness of  war,  and  as  they  look  with  horror  upon  commercial 
transactions  that  are  not  paying  investments,  no  great  en- 
thusiasm can  be  aroused  for  a  war  against  Mexico.  At  the 
most,  Wilson  will  send  one  hundred  thousand  recruits 
against  me,  whom  I  shall  tear  to  pieces  with  fifty  thousand 
men,  without  having  to  raise  the  half -million  men  at  my  dis- 
posal." His  ministers  were  never  able  to  convince  Huerta 
that  the  Americans  could  vanquish  him. 

In  the  first  diplomatic  encounter  between  President  Wil- 
son and  President  Huerta,  the  latter  unquestionably  won  the 
victory,  the  American  Government  losing  considerable  moral 

1  Hamilton  Fyfe,  The  Real  Mexico,  p.  137. 


284      WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT   MEXICO 

prestige  in  the  eyes  of  the  Mexicans,  the  Latin-Americans 
and  the  whole  world.  President  Wilson  had  had  recourse, 
as  Hamilton  Fyfe  says,  to  a  political  game  of  poker,  and 
the  failure  of  his  first  "bluff"  did  not  dismay  him.  He  tried 
a  second,  exceedingly  prejudicial  to  the  interests  of  the 
flourishing  American  colony  which  was  peacefully  pursuing 
its  legitimate  business  in  Mexico,  enjoying  the  good-will  of 
all.  President  Wilson,  in  order  to  make  Huerta  believe 
that  he  had  made  up  his  mind  to  impose  his  will  by  force 
of  arms,  issued  a  peremptory  order  to  all  Americans  to  leave 
Mexico  at  once,  although  at  that  time  they  could  count  upon 
the  determined  and  efficacious  protection  of  Huerta,  who  still 
controlled  the  greater  part  of  the  country.  The  Mexicans 
took  for  granted  that  President  Wilson  was  going  to  declare 
war  against  them  at  once  and  looked  upon  all  Americans  as 
their  enemies,  the  popular  classes  being  especially  inflamed 
against  them.  As  Mr.  Wilson  had  no  intention  whatever 
of  going  to  war  with  Mexico,  it  was  a  mistake,  not  to  call 
it  by  a  stronger  name,  to  sacrifice  the  prosperity  of  the 
American  colony  and  its  cordial  relations  with  the  Mexicans 
in  a  second  "bluff"  to  make  Huerta  lay  down  his  hand. 
Who  is  to  indemnify  the  Americans  for  the  injury  done  to 
their  property  and  business,  and  for  the  loss  of  positions  or 
work  as  employees?  No  American  Government  can  exact 
reparation  of  Mexico  for  damages  brought  upon  its  citizens 
by  their  own  President.  This  being  the  case,  the  irreparable 
losses  suffered  by  the  American  colony  must  weigh  upon  the 
conscience  of  the  honorable  President  of  the  United  States. 
Consequent  upon  the  revolutionists'  determination  to  make 
the  wholesale  pillage  of  the  nation  and  the  confiscation  of 
immovable  property  of  all  kinds  the  practical,  fundamental 
principle  of  the  revolution,  designating  any  one  who  had  any- 
thing to  steal  a  Cientifico,  the  country  was  divided  politically 
into  Cientificos  and  bandits,  although  this  had  never  been 
Senor  Carranza's  intention.  He  had  often  declared  that  he 


THE  COLLAPSE   OF  WILSON'S   POLICY    285 

was  resolved  that  his  revolution  should  have  a  moral  effect 
first  and  an  economic  one  afterwards,  a  high  principle  that 
has  been  realized  by  the  free  play  of  all  kinds  of  crime.  It 
looks  as  though  the  morality  of  this  revolution  will  be  evi- 
dent when  the  last  revolutionist — and  perhaps  also  the  last 
Mexican — shall  have  ceased  to  exist. 

This  program  of  pillage  and  loot  was  carried  forward  with 
zeal  and  enthusiasm.  The  revolutionary  chiefs  stole  for  their 
personal  benefit  plantations,  houses,  mines,  railroads,  cattle, 
shops  of  all  kinds,  jewelry,  furniture,  art  objects,  relics  from 
museums  and  libraries,  the  paraphernalia  of  laboratories — 
in  a  word,  everything  that  had  a  commercial  value.  But  as 
there  was  no  market  in  Mexico  for  valuables  of  any  kind, 
chiefly  because  the  purchaser  of  any  articles  of  value  was 
liable  in  his  turn  to  be  the  victim  of  the  very  pirate  from 
whom  he  had  bought  them,  a  foreign  market  had  to  be 
found  for  all  these  ill-gotten  goods.  This  was  not  easy  to 
find,  as  all  civilized  governments  adhere  to  a  moral  code 
that  does  not  permit  the  establishment  within  their  bound- 
aries of  great  markets  for  the  loot  of  the  world.  He  who 
knowingly  buys  stolen  goods  is  a  party  to  the  theft.  The 
world,  therefore,  has  looked  with  amazement  and  disap- 
proval upon  Mr.  Wilson's  extraordinary  policy  of  protec- 
tion for  the  Mexican  thieves  and  their  American  accomplices 
who  have  bought  the  loot  collected  in  Mexico.  No  one  ever 
dreamed  that  the  time  would  come  when  the  world  would 
see  a  President  of  the  United  States  making  possible  by  his 
incomprehensible  policy  the  general  spoliation  of  a  nation 
in  favor  of  the  lowest,  vilest  element  of  its  population.  Mr. 
Wilson,  feeling  that  the  responsibility  for  himself  and  his 
administration  was  too  great,  finally  took  steps  to  put  a 
stop  to  the  disgraceful  trafficking  that  had  overlapped  the 
border  into  the  United  States,  and  that  offended  the  views 
of  all  right-minded  Americans.  Mr.  Wilson,  however,  did 
not  institute  measures  to  put  a  stop  to  the  conversion  of 


286      WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT   MEXICO 

American  territory  into  a  trading  ground  for  thieves  until 
Huerta  had  already  fallen. 

We  come  at  last  to  the  unwarranted  invasion  of  Mexico 
by  the  American  forces  when7~aHeran  engagement,  Vera 
Cruz  was  occupied.  This  invasion,  the  result  of  an  inop- 
portune ultimatum,  was  a  real  political  crime.  It  had  no 
other  object  than  that  of  protecting  Villa's  attack  in  the 
north  by  obliging  Huerta  to  divert  his  forces  to  the  east,  and 
of  preventing  the  German  boat  Ipiranga  from  unloading  at 
Vera  Cruz  the  arms  and  ammunition  she  was  bringing  over 
to  Huerta.  Huerta  understood  the  move,  was  naturally 
irritated  by  it,  and  resolved  to  unite  all  his  forces  on  the  fron- 
tier, abandon  the  struggle  with  Villa  and  invade  the  United 
States,  no  matter  what  the  consequences  might  be.  Huerta's 
idea  was  to  let  American  bayonets  put  the  Mexican  bandits 
in  power,  and,  devoting  himself  to  guerrilla  warfare,  oblige 
Mr.  Wilson  to  put  aside  his  masquerading  and  go  to  the 
bottom  of  things.  When  Mr.  Wilson  saw  that  events  were 
not  developing  according  to  the  formulas  prescribed  by 
Princeton  University,  that  a  cruel  and  implacable  war  be- 
tween Mexico  and  the  United  States  seemed  inevitable,  and 
that  his  alliance  with  the  Mexican  bandits  would  be  of  no 
value  to  him,  as,  first  and  last,  they  would  fight  against  him 
for  their  country,  he  had  recourse  to  the  mediation  comedy 
suggested  by  the  diplomatists  of  the  leading  South  Ameri- 
can Republics:  Argentine,  Chile  and  Brazil.  Mexico  was 
not  slow  to  understand  the  import  of  this  move,  and  felt  a 
sense  of  contempt  for  the  Latin-American  nations  which 
were  giving  their  support  to  the  farce  invented  by  Mr. 
Bryan.  The  world  took  note  of  the  fact  that  it  required 
two  months  to  settle  the  insignificant  Mexican  question, 
when  it  had  taken  only  three  days  to  arrange  the  treaty  of 
peace  between  Russia  and  Japan.  But  it  was  necessary  to 
mark  time  in  order  to  give  the  revolutionists  an  opportunity 
to  annihilate  Huerta. 


THE  COLLAPSE   OF  WILSON'S   POLICY    287 

How  can  so  many  mistakes  committed  by  a  talented  and 
intelligent  man  be  explained?  From  the  first,  by  the  un- 
pardonable weakness  of  allowing  himself  to  be  carried  away 
by  the  impulse  of  horror  against  Huerta  as  a  perfidious 
assassin  when  there  were  duties  of  State  superior,  not  to 
personal  rights,  but  to  exquisite  sentimental  impressions. 
Mr.  Wilson  saw  through  the  eyes  of  the  demagogues.  He 
was  obsessed  by  the  array  of  lies  they  had  woven  into  a 
revolutionary  thesis,  and  saw  alongside  the  United  States 
a  Mexico  unlike  what  it  actually  was.  In  his  eyes  it  was 
very  like  or  identical  with  New  Spain  with  its  landowning 
encomenderos,  its  grasping  merchants,  its  powerful  clerical 
body,  its  despotic  rulers,  and  with  a  population,  depending 
upon  agriculture  for  its  living,  as  miserable  as  that  of  Russia 
in  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century.  Mr.  Wilson  at 
once  formulated  a  decidedly  rococo  political  program  to  be 
applied  to  Mexico.  It  included  the  following  propositions: 

First — To  overthrow  Huerta. 

Second — To  maintain  inviolable  the  unwritten  principle 
of  international  law  that  no  Mexican  government  could 
exist  that  did  not  have  the  approbation  of  the  President  of 
the  United  States. 

Third — To  establish  a  definitive  Constitutional  govern- 
ment. 

Fourth — To  see  that  this  government  should  be  of  the 
free,  individualistic,  democratic  type. 

Fifth — To  put  the  downtrodden  eighty-five  per  cent  in 
possession  of  the  marvellously  fertile  arable  lands,  of  the 
wonderful  natural  pasture  lands,  where  herds  of  the  highest 
grade  cattle  could  be  raised,  and  of  the  virgin  forests,  rich 
in  precious  woods,  suitable  for  cabinet-work,  building  and 
fuel.  The  country  possessed  all  these  riches  in  abundance 
and  they  were  locked  in  the  iron  coffers  of  the  cruel,  tyranni- 
cal landowners,  or,  more  correctly,  in  those  of  the  Cien- 
tificos. 


288      WHOLE   TRUTH    ABOUT    MEXICO 

The  "insigne  doctor  apostol  Mr.  Wilson,"  as  the  revolu- 
tionists call  President  Wilson,  equals  in  determination 
the  German  General  Staff,  and,  consequently,  acted  in  true 
German  fashion,  calculating  what  it  would  cost — to  Mexico, 
of  course — to  redeem  it  according  to  the  Wilson  system. 

The  "apostolic"  calculation  was: 

Lives  sacrificed  by  firearms  or  the  dagger 300,000 

Lives  sacrificed  through  small-pox  and  typhus, 

first    count    200,000 

Lives   sacrificed   through   other  diseases   of   an 

unusual   nature    100,000 

Lives  sacrificed  by  starvation. As  many  as  may  be  necessary 

Women  outraged 100,000  per  day 

Americans  assassinated 160 

Americans  killed   at  Vera   Cruz 17 

Massacre  of  all   foreigners  not  Americans 

As  many  as  may  be  necessary 

Expulsion  of  foreigners  of  all  classes As  many  as  possible 

Destruction  of  Mexican  property 1,000,000,000  pesos 

Probable  amount  of  foreign  claims 1,000,000,000      " 

For  the   reconstruction   and  equipping  of  rail- 
roads          150,000,000     " 

Probable    railway    debt    from    destruction    of 

roadbeds  and  rolling  stock  150,000,000     " 

Minimum  issue  of  paper  money  by  the  revolu- 
tionists          500,000,000      " 

Minimum  issue  of  paper  money  by  the  banks..      150,000,000      " 
Gold  and  silver  coin  taken  out  of  the  country. .      160,000,000      " 

Increase  of  the  public  debt  240,000,000     tl 

Moral    suffering   of   the    population    from   two 

years  of  the  keenest  terror. .  .As  much  as  they  can  possibly  bear 
Probable    continuation    of    anarchy   in    March, 

1916    Open  account 

It  cannot  be  denied  that  the  estimate  of  the  cost  of  re- 
deeming the  eighty-five  per  cent  is  rather  high,  and  perhaps 
it  would  have  been  better,  in  the  interests  of  morality, 
justice,  humanity,  and  the  credit  of  the  United  States  Govern- 
ment, not  to  have  redeemed  them  at  this  particular  time, 


THE   COLLAPSE   OF  WILSON'S    POLICY    289 

but  to  have  waited  for  more  opportune  circumstances  to 
have  indicated  the  proper  moment.  However,  if  there  were 
no  other  way  of  redeeming  a  nation  of  15,000,000  inhabit- 
ants than  at  the  tremendous  cost  Mr.  Wilson  accepts  so 
calmly,  just  as  the  German  General  Staff  accepts  calmly 
the  tearing  to  pieces  of  eight  or  ten  million  Germans  by 
artillery  fire,  it  is  necessary  to  be  resigned  to  the  great  sacri- 
fices, because,  however  great  they  may  be,  they  are  always 
of  less  consequence  than  the  prodigiously  magnificent  results 
to  be  attained.  To  transform  a  people  suffering  from  the 
effects  of  seven  hundred  years  of  slavery,  illiteracy,  physi- 
cal, moral  and  intellectual  misery  in  two  years  or  less,  fol- 
lowing a  plan  noted  for  its  disregard  of  all  scientific  laws, 
is  nothing  short  of  performing  the  greatest  of  miracles. 


THE   MEXICAN    PEOPLE  THE  VICTIMS   OF  AN   ASIATIC   WAR 

On  August  14,  1914,  Senor  Venustiano  Carranza  made 
his  triumphant  entry  into  the  City  of  Mexico,  "cast  in  the 
mould  of  immortality,"  as  his  admirer,  Senor  Fernandez 
Giiell  has  expressed  it,  quite  a  fitting  state  in  which  to  shed 
that  celebrated  "molten  tear"  upon  Madero's  grave. 

That  day  must  be  a  memorable  one  for  President  Wilson, 
because  it  indicated  that  the  season  for  reaping  the  harvest 
of  his  idealistic  sowing  was  at  hand. 

When  Senor  Francisco  Madero  made  his  triumphal  entry 
into  the  City  of  Mexico  on  June  17,  1911,  whatever  the 
principles  shielded  by  his  victorious  banner  might  be,  there 
can  be  no  doubt  that  it  was  a  national  triumph,  as  the  fol- 
lowing table  will  prove: 


29o      WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT   MEXICO 


LIST  OF  PROVISIONAL  GOVERNORS  APPOINTED  AFTER  THE  TRIUMPH 
OF  THE  MADERO  REVOLUTION 


Aguascalientes 

Campeche 

Coahuila 

Colima 

Chiapas 

Chihuahua 

Durango 

Guanajuato 

Guerrero 

Hidalgo 

Jalisco 

Mexico 

Michoacan 

Morelos 

Nuevo  Leon 

Oaxaca 

Puebla 

Queretaro 

San  Luis  Potosi 

Sinaloa 

Sonora 

Tabasco 

Tamaulipas 

Vera  Cruz 

Yucatan 

Zacatecas 


Alberto  Fuentes 
Urbano  Espinosa 
Venustiano  Carranza 
Miguel  Garcia  Topete 
Reynaldo  Gordillo  Leon 
Abraham  Gonzalez 
Luis  Alfonso  Trejo 
Juan  B.  Castelazo 
Francisco  Figueroa 
Jesus  Silva 

David  Gutierrez  Allende 
Rafael  Hidalgo 
Miguel  Silva 
Juan  N.  Carrion 
Leobardo  Chapa 
Heliodoro  Diaz  Quintas 
Rafael  P.  Canete 
Jose  Antonio  Septien 
Rafael  Cepeda 
Celso  paxiola  Rojo 
Carlos  E.  Randall 
Manuel  Mestro  Ghigliaza 
Espiridion  Lara 
Leon  Aillaud 
Jose  M.  Pino  Suarez 
Guadalupe  Gonzalez 


Native  of  Campeche 
Native  of  Coahuila 
Native  of  Colima 
Native  of  Chiapas 
Native  of  Chihuahua 
Native  of  Durango 
Native  of  Guanajuato 
Native  of  Guerrero 
Native  of  Hidalgo 
Native  of  Jalisco 
Native  of  Mexico 
Native  of  Michoacan 
Native  of  Morelos 
Native  of  Nuevo  Leon 
Native  of  Oaxaca 
Native  of  Puebla 
Native  of  Queretaro 
Native  of  Coahuila 
Native  of  Sinaloa 
Native  of  Sonora 
Native  of  Tabasco 
Native  of  Tamaulipas 
Native  of  Vera  Cruz 
Native  of  Yucatan 
Native  of  Zacatecas 


From  the  foregoing  table  it  will  be  seen  that  whatever 
else  the  Madero  triumph  signified,  it  represented  a  brilliant 
national  triumph.  Each  state  was  represented  by  one  of  its 
own  sons,  fulfilling  an  aspiration  that  had  long  been  felt. 
In  Aguascalientes  and  San  Luis  Potosi  alone  do  we  find 
outsiders,  and  here  Madero  broke  his  promise.  A  nation  is 
a  civil  organism,  and  as  all  the  provisional  governors  were 
civilians,  another  great  national  aspiration  had  been  realized. 
All  classes  unanimously  rejected  the  military  tyranny,  think- 
ing themselves  fit  for  a  democratic  form  of  government. 

Let  us  see  what  the  Carrancista  revolution,  misnamed 
Constitutional,  offers  at  its  triumph  on  August  I,  1913. 
I  am  going  to  lay  particular  stress  upon  the  conquest  of  the 


THE   COLLAPSE   OF  WILSON'S   POLICY    291 


Mexicans  of  the  central  states,  because  those  of  the  south 
have  not  even  yet  been  conquered  by  the  northerners. 
GOVERNORS  OF  THE  CONQUERED  NORTHERN  STATES  IN  SEPTEMBER,  1914 


Native  of  Chihuahua 
Native  of  Sonora 
Native  of  Durango 
Native  of  Sinaloa 
Native  of  Coahuila 


Chihuahua  General  Avila 

Sonora  General  Jose  Maytorena 

Duranpo  General  Arrieta 

Sinaloa  General  Iturbe 

Coahuila  Lawyer  Jesus  Acuna 

Nuevo  Leon  General  Antonio  Villarreal    Native  of  Nuevo  Leon 

Tamaulipas  General  Luis  Caballero         Native  of  Tamaulipas 

In  the  foregoing  list  it  will  be  noted  that  with  one  ex- 
ception all  the  governors  are  military  men  and  the  sons  of 
the  respective  states  they  govern.  The  exception  is  Senor 
Acuna,  and  it  may  be  remarked  in  passing  that  his  name 
appears  in  this  list  as  Senor  Venustiano  Carranza's  personal 
representative,  Senor  Carranza  proposing  to  be  the  Chief 
Executive  of  the  nation,  as  well  as  the  governor  of  his  own 
state. 

Let  us  see  how  the  central  and  southern  states  are  repre- 
sented. 

GOVERNORS   OF  THE   CONQUERED   CENTRAL   AND   SOUTHERN    STATES 


Aguascalientes 

Guanajuato 

Jalisco 

Mexico 

Michoacan 

Oaxaca 

Puebla 

San  Luis  Potosi 

Tlaxcala 

Vera  Cruz 

Zacatecas 

Chiapas 

Campeche 

Tabasco 

Yucatan 

Morelos 

Guerrero 


SEPTEMBER,  1914 
General  X 
General  Garza 
General  Dieguez 
General  Murgia 
General  G.  Sanchez 
General  Davila 
General  F.  Coss 
General  E.  Gutierrez 
General  X 
General  C.  Aguilar 
General  P.  Natera 
Under  control  of  J.  Carranza 
Under  control  of  J.  Carranza 
Under  control  of  J.  Carranza 
Under  control  of  J.  Carranza 
Southern  State 
Southern  State 


Northerner 

Northerner 

Northerner 

Northerner 

Northerner 

Northerner 

Northerner 

Native  of  Zacatecas 

Northerner 

Native  of  Vera  Cruz 

Native  of  Zacatecas 

Northerner 

Northerner 

Northerner 

Northerner 

Zapatista 

Zapatista 


292      WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT    MEXICO 

It  will  be  noted  in  the  foregoing  list  that  Morelos  and 
Guerrero,  both  southern  states,  had  not  been  conquered  by 
the  northerners.  Senor  Candido  Aguilar  and  Senor  Panfilo 
Natera  were  created  military  governors  of  their  respective 
states,  because  both  had  been  allies  of  the  northern  revolution. 
There  can  be  no  doubt,  then,  that  Carranza's  triumph  was 
in  no  sense  of  the  word  a  national,  democratic  triumph,  but 
simply  the  triumph  of  the  northerners  who  had  suddenly 
flung  themselves  against  the  men  of  the  central  states  who 
were  unable  to  resist  them,  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  they 
counted  for  support  upon  a  population  of  12,000,000.  The 
Zapatistas  can  lay  claim  to  this  glory;  they  have  valiantly 
resisted  the  attacks  of  the  northerners. 

The  conquest  of  the  southerners  by  the  northerners 
smacked  of  the  classic  barbarity  that  characterized  the  con- 
quests of  three  thousand  years  ago,  although  upon  a  much 
lower  scale.  In  those  memorable  days  of  primitive  simplicity, 
the  rude  and  hungry  pastoral  people  bore  down  upon  the  rich 
husbandman  class,  unable  to  defend  themselves  because  of 
their  effeminacy  and  voluptuousness.  The  conqueror  set  fire 
to  the  temples  of  his  conquered  foe,  dethroned  his  idols  and 
stole  the  sacred  vessels;  the  soldiery  violated  the  priestesses; 
the  great  chiefs,  after  decapitating  the  high  priests  and  the 
cowardly  aristocrats,  took  possession  of  all  the  movable  and 
immovable  property  of  the  conquered,  reducing  them  to  the 
most  abject  state  of  slavery.  Only  the  chiefs  of  higher  rank, 
who  were  to  form  the  new  aristocracy,  shared  in  the  division 
of  the  booty.  The  greater  portion  of  the  conquered  slaves 
were  sold  or  kept  to  satiate  the  rapacity  of  their  conquerors. 

It  is  safe  to  say  that  the  Mexican  revolution  up  to  Octo- 
ber, 1915,  was  not  socialistic,  anarchistic,  constitutionalistic, 
or  anything  that  has  ever  been  seen  in  modern  times;  but  a 
conquest  which  placed  a  yoke  of  barbaric  Asiatic  slavery 
upon  the  great  majority  of  the  Mexican  people.  It  was 
somewhat  modified  by  the  influence  of  the  times  and  by  its 


THE   COLLAPSE   OF  WILSON'S   POLICY    293 

proximity  to  the  United  States,  which  necessarily  made  the 
northerners  more  or  less  circumspect  in  following  too  closely 
the  historic  and  prehistoric  methods  they  aimed  at.  The 
program  was  formulated  by  the  demagogues  for  their  per- 
sonal benefit;  the  revolution  has  given  it  a  historic  setting. 


THE  FIRST  IMPORTANT   POLITICAL   PROBLEM 

Conquest  affects  the  conquered  territory  in  three  ways: 
First,  the  establishment  of  a  colonial  government;  second, 
that  of  a  protectorate;  third,  the  possession  of  the  territory 
by  the  conquerors,  who  form  a  governing  aristocracy.  The 
last  was  the  form  taken  by  the  Norman  Conquest,  and  was 
the  one  accepted  in  Mexico  by  the  northern  conquerors  in 
1914 — in  idea  only — however,  because  in  form  it  has  had  all 
the  repulsive  features  of  a  prehistoric  conquest. 

When  President  Wilson  announced  to  the  world  in  his 
Indianapolis  speech,  with  all  the  pageantry  of  his  carefully 
chosen  words,  with  the  pride  of  a  statesman  and  the  emotion 
of  an  illumined  apostle,  that  the  Mexican  people  had  con- 
quered liberty,  facts,  those  intractable  witnesses  which  can- 
not always  be  silenced,  and  which  cannot  possibly  be  hidden 
when  they  are  the  outcome  of  the  acts  of  a  community,  an- 
nounced on  their  side  to  the  world  that  the  so-called  conquest 
of  liberty,  which  President  Wilson  proclaimed  so  loudly, 
was  nothing  more  than  the  galling  conquest  of  the  great 
majority  of  the  Mexican  people  by  the  northerners.  Almost 
all  of  these  men,  judged  by  twentieth-century  standards, 
were  infamous  bandits;  heroes,  only,  if  judged  by  the  moral 
standards  of  three  thousand  years  ago.  A  truly  edifying 
picture  does  President  Wilson's  humanitarian  work  in  Mex- 
ico present! 

Mr.  Wilson's  program  included  liberty.  These  twentieth- 
century  conquerors  could  have  accepted  a  liberal  regime  even 
though  they  were  Mexican  northern  bandits,  but  they  chose 


294      WHOLE   TRUTH    ABOUT    MEXICO 

instead  a  keen-edged  military  regime,  one  that  did  not  even 
resemble  that  of  Sesostris  or  Shalmaneser.  They  must  have 
patterned  their  government  upon  that  existing  some  cen- 
turies before  even  Assyrian  civilization,  as  they  announced 
that  civilians  would  have  no  political  rights  whatever. 
Everything  was  to  be  vested  in  the  military:  the  right  to 
govern;  the  right  to  discuss  public  questions;  the  right  to 
be  recompensed  for  having  stolen  with  a  high  hand;  the 
right  to  be  considered  a  Mexican  citizen ;  the  right  to  be  con- 
sidered a  man.  Nothing,  absolutely  nothing,  of  civil  rights. 

In  the  time  of  Shalmaneser  the  conquered  were  obliged  to 
accept  the  religion  of  the  conquerors;  but  as  the  Constitu- 
tionalists had  no  religion,  the  conquered,  in  order  to  quiet 
their  conscience  and  still  the  yearnings  of  religious  senti- 
ment, were  to  devote  themselves  to  the  worship  of  the  First 
Chief,  of  Villa  and  even  of  Obregon.  Catholicism  was  pro- 
hibited because  it  was  an  anti-Constitutionalist  religion  or, 
more  properly  speaking,  that  of  the  Cientificos. 

There  were  to  be  no  civil  magistrates,  judges,  aldermen, 
mayors,  select  men,  or  policemen.  No  press  was  to  be 
tolerated  except  that  which  devoted  itself  exclusively  to 
swinging  censers  before  the  altars  of  the  saving  heroes  of  the 
poor.  No  sealed  letters  could  be  exchanged;  no  telegram 
or  written  communication  could  pass  uncensored.  No  one 
could  under  pain  of  death  be  an  enemy  of  the  revolution, 
by  enemy  being  understood  any  one  who  did  not  fall  down 
and  worship  at  the  shrine  of  these  fearful  bandits.  Follow- 
ing the  new  revolutionary  tenets,  the  military  man  should 
be  legislator,  judge,  alderman,  mayor,  priest,  policeman, 
school  teacher,  notable  patriot,  supreme  hero,  robber-in-chief 
and  idol  to  be  worshiped.  As  theft  was  the  sole  vivifying 
principle  of  the  revolution,  it  was  not  permitted  to  steal 
even  from  a  pickpocket,  because  stealing  was  the  special 
privilege  of  the  "saviors  of  the  poor";  and  it  behooved  all 
to  do  away  with  the  little  they  had  in  order  that,  being  abso- 


THE   COLLAPSE   OF  WILSON'S   POLICY    295 

lutely  poor,  they  might  share  in  the  benefits  of  the  redeemed. 

And  the  landholdings,  the  great  landholdings,  what  of 
them?  The  greatest  among  them  passed  into  the  hands  of 
the  Constitutionalist  chiefs,  to  be  enjoyed  with  the  rights  of 
absolute  ownership.  What  had  constituted  the  great  offense 
against  the  poor  had  become  the  great  plum  of  the  conquest ! 
All  the  personal  property  of  the  wealthy  was  appropriated 
by  the  Constitutionalists.  Handsome  residences,  automo- 
biles, jewelry,  furniture,  money,  clothes,  everything  pos- 
sessed by  the  aristocrats,  and  even  those  who  were  not  aristo- 
crats, was  taken  by  the  revolutionists.  The  Constitutionalist 
revolution  was  a  renovating  revolution,  and  the  renovation 
was  admirable.  The  rural  peon  was  transformed  into  a 
bandit;  the  bandit  into  a  general;  the  general  into  a  multi- 
millionaire; the  multi-millionaire  into  an  aristocrat  of  the 
type  of  a  prehistoric  tribe,  poorly  accommodated  to 
modern  times.  Eight  days  after  the  Constitutionalist  army 
entered  the  City  of  Mexico  the  new  aristocracy  had  been 
formed,  such  distinguished  titles  as  that  of  Prince  of  Con- 
stitutionalism, Duke  of  the  Stolen  Automobile,  Marquis  of 
the  Agrarian  Question,  Count  of  the  Indigenous  Race, 
Baron  of  Free  Assassination,  Knight  of  the  Idiotic  Press, 
shining  prominently  among  them.  Such  was  the  equality, 
liberty,  fraternity,  democracy,  virtue,  distribution  of  lands 
offered  to  the  poor,  to  Mr.  Wilson,  to  the  American  peo- 
ple and  to  the  Latin-American  republics. 

Europe  was  never  taken  in,  and,  as  Mr.  Wilson  knows, 
was  never  in  sympathy  with  a  revolution  that  was  not  lib- 
eral or  socialistic,  or  even  anarchistic,  but  simply  unvarnished 
brigandage.  Mr.  Wilson  was  under  the  impression  that 
what  he  was  upholding  was  a  revolution  backed  by  moral 
principles,  which  was  destined  to  correct  the  corruption  of 
the  Porfirian  regime.  What  he  actually  upheld  was  what 
Mr.  Fuller,  his  distinguished  special  envoy,  sent  to  Mexico 
in  September,  1914,  reported  to  him:  "No  Government 


296      WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT    MEXICO 

exists  there,  not  even  militarism,  nor  is  any  effort  being 
made  to  do  anything  to  improve  the  condition  of  the  poor. 
All  traces  of  civilization  having  vanished;  what  exists  is  a 
defenseless  and  humiliated  society  at  the  mercy  of  two  hun- 
dred thousand  bandits."  Mr.  Fuller's  report,  and  those 
submitted  to  President  Wilson  by  the  Diplomatic  Corps 
in  Washington  and  the  Brazilian  Minister  in  Mexico,  ad- 
dressed to  Mr.  Bryan,  all  in  the  same  tenor,  obliged  Presi- 
dent Wilson  to  decline  to  recognize  as  a  government  this 
anarchical  imbroglio,  the  grandiose  result  of  an  idealistic 
theory  of  redemption. 

In  August,  1914,  President  Wilson's  triumph  was  com- 
plete. Huerta  had  fallen ;  the  decent  landowners  had  fallen, 
to  be  replaced  by  bandits;  the  Cientificos,  who  existed  only 
in  President  Wilson's  imagination  and  in  the  perverse  will 
of  those  who  were  making  game  of  their  name,  had  fallen; 
Catholicism  had  fallen,  as  well  as  courts,  law,  justice, 
national  prosperity,  respect  for  the  foreigner  and  for  the 
moral  power  of  the  United  States.  Zapata  had  proclaimed 
the  restoration  of  the  ancient  Aztec  regime  and  radical 
socialism,  and  was  the  only  patriotic  bandit,  as  he  had  never 
asked  Mr.  Wilson's  protection  in  exchange  for  slices  of 
national  sovereignty.  Villa  had  appeared  as  the  Mahdi  of 
the  Soudan,  with  his  insane  program  of  unlimited  plunder 
and  assassination,  of  arbitrariness  and  despotism,  a  beast  or 
a  maniac,  spreading  fire  and  destruction  in  his  pathway. 
Carranza  had  appeared  as  the  reactionist  against  Porfirism. 
Everything  was  for  himself,  exclusively  for  himself.  The 
revolution,  the  bandits,  the  budding  statesmen,  the  Porra, 
the  intellectual  offscourings,  the  public  degradation,  the 
political  corruption,  the  oppressed  people — everything  be- 
longed to  him,  and  was  to  be  immediately  put  into  action 
to  inaugurate  another  thirty  years'  dictatorship,  modelled 
after  the  most  approved  pattern  of  1910,  with  an  open  road 
to  ignominy  along  the  triumphal  highway  of  theft.  The 


THE   COLLAPSE  OF  WILSON'S    POLICY    297 

revolution  is  to  be  understood  only  in  its  relation  to  theft, 
and  when  there  is  no  longer  anything  to  steal  the  revolution 
will  die,  leaving  no  provision  in  its  will  for  a  moribund  peo- 
ple, bereft,  in  the  process  of  redemption,  of  every  vestige  of 
civilization. 

A  period  of  humiliation  has  been  ushered  in  for  President 
Wilson  since  the  complete  triumph  of  this  Constitutionalism, 
characterized  by  unbridled  license.  His  humiliation  con- 
sists in  the  justly  wounded  pride  of  the  United  States,  theo- 
retically the  worshipper  of  his  omnipotence,  which  was 
based  solely  upon  the  powerful  arsenals  of  his  moral  force. 
This  moral  force  Mr.  Wilson  has  squandered  in  the 
"bluffs,"  so  absolutely  indispensable  in  his  game  of  political 
poker.  The  apostolic  President  believed  that  in  procuring 
victory  for  the  Mexican  liberators,  the  White  House  would 
have  their  assistance  in  carrying  out  its  experiments,  enabling 
it  to  turn  Mexico  into  a  great  laboratory  for  the  working 
out  of  all  sane  and  insane  idealistic  theories.  But  to  his 
great  surprise  their  one  object  seemed  to  be  to  relieve  every 
one  of  the  weight  of  all  movable  and  immovable  property, 
of  all  moral  and  intellectual  advantages.  The  Princeton 
professor  was  convinced  before  long  that  his  proteges  were 
nothing  more  than  rebellious  subjects;  and  the  President  of 
the  United  States,  understanding  his  responsibilities  before 
the  world,  and  especially  before  the  upright  and  well  mean- 
ing portion  of  the  American  people,  in  appearing  as  the 
accomplice  of  bandits  given  over  to  the  task  of  transforming 
a  once  thriving  nation  into  a  material  and  moral  dung- 
heap,  urgently  recommended  that  the  northerners  should 
proclaim  at  once  a  general  and  far-reaching  amnesty.  The 
reply  was  that,  instead  of  Constitutionalism,  a  regime  of  pre- 
historic government  had  been  inaugurated  without  other 
laws  than  the  will  of  the  chief  of  each  band,  the  country 
having  been  divided  into  bands,  nominally  under  the  juris- 
diction of  different  supreme  authorities.  Mr.  Wilson  then 


298      WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT   MEXICO 

abandoned  his  humanitarian  projects  and  assumed  a  luke- 
warm neutrality  before  the  appalling  spectacle  of  the  an- 
archy reigning  in  Mexico.  Following  the  cruel  advice  of 
various  newspapers,  he  resolved  to  leave  the  Mexicans  to 
fight  it  out  among  themselves — with  arms  furnished  by  the 
United  States — until  the  incorrigibles  either  saved  them- 
selves or  were  exterminated,  consigned  to  the  grave  with 
opprobrium  and  destined  to  oblivion  as  a  pernicious  race 
worthy  of  its  doom.  Without  a  doubt  it  was  good  advice. 
Let  nature  take  its  course.  Let  anarchy,  the  representative 
of  all  the  vital  and  morbid  forces  of  the  organism,  have  full 
play.  But  Mr.  Wilson  was  as  implacable  as  a  German  sub- 
marine in  the  presence  of  an  unarmed  ocean  liner.  In  this 
he  was  influenced  by  his  hatred  of  the  imaginary  Cientificos  ; 
of  the  imaginary  cruel  landowners;  of  the  imaginary  enemies 
of  the  eighty-five  per  cent;  of  the  Mexican  cultured  classes, 
who  refused  to  submit  to  his  idealistic  theories;  of  the  pa- 
triots, who  resented  his  interference  in  Mexican  politics;  of 
the  imaginary  foreigners,  who  robbed  the  poor  during  the 
Diaz  dictatorship;  of  all  the  middle  classes,  who  refused  to 
conform  to  the  revolution;  of  all  the  capitalists,  who  did 
not  favor  the  program  of  being  robbed  of  all  their  posses- 
sions; of  everything  in  Mexico  that  had  a  conservative 
aspect,  that  represented  the  prestige  of  the  past  or  a  senti- 
ment of  tenderness  or  veneration  for  an  ideal  not  exactly 
in  keeping  with  that  set  down  by  the  President  of  the 
United  States  for  the  Mexican  people. 

He  rejected  the  happy  idea  that  the  state  of  anarchy  exist- 
ing in  Mexico  should  be  settled  by  giving  full  reign  to  all 
the  social  forces:  sinister,  elevating,  civilizing,  infernal,  re- 
pulsive or  sublime. 

He  rejected  the  scientific  principle  that  anarchy  itself 
should  work  against  anarchy  and,  that  failing,  have  recourse 
to  armed  intervention.  The  Mexican  people  would  have 
asked  for  it  as  suppliants,  because  the  unnatural  impulse  to 


THE   COLLAPSE   OF  WILSON'S   POLICY    199 

suicide  can  never  take  hold  of  a  whole  nation.  They  never 
would  have  asked  for  it  directly,  however;  they  would  have 
allowed  their  silent  resignation  or  agonizing  gasp  to  speak 
for  them. 

President  Wilson  tenaciously  opposed  the  Mexicans  avail- 
ing themselves  of  the  last  resource  held  out  to  them  to  fight 
as  a  national  unit  for  their  deliverance,  before  being  driven 
to  accept  the  protectorate  of  the  United  States.  This,  how- 
ever, would  not  have  been  imposed  without  a  heroic  struggle 
to  defend  their  national  honor,  and  to  leave  to  them  the 
consciousness  of  having  done  their  duty  before  being  over- 
taken by  disaster.  He  refused  to  grant  what  the  Mexican 
people  had  a  right  to  demand — their  regeneration  through 
exclusively  national  elements,  united  for  a  supreme,  final 
effort.  This  failing,  anarchy  could  swallow  them  up,  or 
their  nation  could  cease  to  exist,  but  they  would  be  spared 
the  contempt  of  the  world  and  that  of  their  conquerors. 

Huerta  appeared  in  El  Paso  for  the  final  stand,  ready  to 
return  to  his  country  in  arms  and  ammunition  the  wealth 
he  had  stolen,  offering  his  life,  which  justice  would  perhaps 
have  accepted.  At  that  moment  President  Wilson,  tramp- 
ling all  laws  under  foot,  had  him  arrested,  cast  into  prison 
and  held  there  until  death  claimed  him  for  its  own.  Pascual 
Orozco  and  other  leaders  were  hounded  by  American 
rangers  when  they  were  nothing  more  than  inoffensive  politi- 
cal refugees,  fleeing  from  courts  which  were  wont  to  judge 
trumped-up  charges  by  codes  of  strict  justice.  It  is  evident 
that  even  if  Huerta  had  penetrated  into  Mexican  territory 
with  revolutionary  intentions,  he  could  not  possibly  have  re- 
covered the  supreme  power.  Nevertheless,  his  revolution 
would  have  served  a  useful  purpose,  because  it  would  have 
drawn  the  persecuted  popular  class  to  its  ranks,  as  well  as 
the  younger  element  of  the  Federal  army  and  the  better 
class  civilians,  who  had  every  right  to  cross  the  frontier  to 
reconquer  their  country,  snatched  from  them  by  the  bandits, 


300      WHOLE   TRUTH    ABOUT    MEXICO 

led  by  Villa,  Carranza,  Zapata  and  the  Convention,  pro- 
tected by  the  President  of  the  United  States. 

The  state  of  Oaxaca  has  1,300,000  inhabitants,  almost  all 
of  them  full-blooded  Indians.  They  are  industrious,  honest, 
brave,  attached  to  their  traditions,  having  no  interest  in  the 
distribution  of  lands  because  their  property  is  held  in  com- 
mon, and  their  ancestors  for  generations  back  have  tilled  the 
same  soil.  These  Indians  have  never  been  revolutionists. 
They  love  liberty  and  Catholicism  and  their  native  state, 
have  always  obeyed  the  laws,  and  are  an  estimable  national 
group  which  has  always  been  remarkable  for  its  patriotism. 
In  1910  Oaxaca  was  not  Porfirista,  and  it  has  never  been 
Felicista.  It  is  true  Felix  Diaz  has  a  following  in  Oaxaca, 
but  it  is  very  insignificent.  They  set  their  face  energetically 
and  valiantly  against  the  revolution's  program  of  pillage; 
they  resolved  not  to  allow  themselves  to  be  trampled  upon, 
their  property  destroyed,  their  religion  besmirched,  them- 
selves placed  in  bondage.  This  community  deserved  to  be 
commended  by  President  Wilson  as  really  worthy  of  protec- 
tion. Nevertheless,  what  does  the  grandee  of  the  White 
House  do  but  prevent  them  from  buying  arms  and  ammuni- 
tion with  their  own  money  in  the  United  States — the  only 
market  open  to  them — not  to  start  an  insurrection,  be  it  re- 
membered, but  to  defend  their  lives  and  property  against  the 
Carrancista  hordes  that  were  descending  on  them,  bent  upon 
spreading  devastation  broadcast  here  as  they  had  done  else- 
where. President  Wilson  does  not  wish  the  conflict  between 
the  bandits  to  become  complicated ;  he  wishes,  evidently,  that 
the  duel  between  Villa  and  Carranza  shall  have  only  one 
result — the  triumph  of  brigandage  against  society. 

In  the  states  of  Vera  Cruz,  Michoacan  and  Guanajuato 
there  have  been  counter-revolutionary  movements,  organized 
by  the  landowners,  ranchmen,  small  property  owners,  those 
who  farmed  on  the  co-partnership  basis,  and  Catholics  of  all 
classes  and  conditions  who  still  have  the  spirit  to  defend  their 


THE   COLLAPSE   OF  WILSON'S   POLICY    301 

faith.  If  the  Catholics  of  the  United  States  had  been  as  in- 
famously treated  as  the  Mexican  Catholics  have  been,  they 
would  have  taken  up  arms  and  fought  with  their  bishops  and 
priests  at  their  head,  making  themselves  respected  by  their 
enemies  and  winning  universal  applause.  When  the  Mexi- 
can Catholics  have  attempted  to  make  use  of  a  right  no  civ- 
ilized man  can  deny  them,  President  Wilson  has  given 
orders  that  these  "rebels"  be  not  permitted  to  buy  arms  and 
ammunition  in  the  United  States. 

The  principle  of  self-preservation  exists  and  always  will 
exist  in  the  popular  masses,  as  it  exists  in  the  animal  and 
vegetable  kingdoms,  notwithstanding  all  the  real  and  unreal 
forces  that  may  be  brought  to  bear  against  it.  When  this 
giant  stirs,  it  shakes  off  the  shackles  and  a  reaction  favorable 
to  a  normal  life  asserts  itself,  sweeping  all  reforms  clean  of 
everything  but  what  in  the  light  of  truth  and  justice  can  be 
considered  real  progress. 

Of  all  the  social  classes  the  popular  class  is  the  most  con- 
servative, although  to  the  eyes  of  incautious  politicians  it 
may  appear  extremely  sensitive  to  progressive  suggestions. 
Ignorance  and  sentiment  tend  to  make  men  live  in  the  past. 
Habits  of  mind  and  heart  formed  generation  by  generation 
cannot  be  lightly  cast  off,  and  that  new  mode  of  life  chiselled 
out  of  the  purely  progressive  material  is  an  unfortunate  fic- 
tion of  politicians,  who  attempt  to  make  a  credulous  public 
accept  at  their  face  value  the  absurdities  they  call  social  re- 
forms. In  man  all  development  is  gradual.  His  existence 
embraces  the  past,  or  perhaps  it  would  be  more  correct  to 
say  that  the  past  embraces  him,  and  all  new  theories  advanced 
by  men,  even  if  they  be  reformers,  are  almost  all  unreal 
dreams  and  visions.  Industrial  progress  goes  by  leaps  and 
bounds,  from  oil  lamps  to  incandescent  lights  in  sixty  years. 
Each  step  in  moral  progress  takes  at  least  a  century  and 
measures  at  the  most  one  centimeter.  The  secret  of  politics 
lies  in  knowing  how  to  wait.  The  masses  easily  take  the  bit 


302      WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT   MEXICO 

between  their  teeth  and  bolt  from  the  control  of  their  former 
masters,  but  always  turn  to  them  to  be  saved  when  they  feel 
the  ground  giving  way  under  their  feet  and  a  yawning  abyss 
opening  to  receive  them. 

For  some  months  past  the  majority  of  the  Mexican  pop- 
ular classes  has  evinced  excellent  dispositions  to  cease  the 
conflict  and  return,  like  bruised  lambs,  to  the  sheep-fold. 
They  want  to  reenkindle  their  hearth  fires,  to  give  repose 
to  their  weary  spirits,  to  resume  the  habits  of  life  handed 
down  by  their  ancestors,  to  gather  anew  round  the  altars  of 
their  patron  saints  and  their  miraculous  Virgins,  to  listen  to 
the  paternal  voice  of  their  spiritual  fathers,  and  to  feel  the 
soothing  influence  of  human  sensations  evoked  by  consoling 
voices  which  will  sooth  their  sufferings,  awaken  sacred  mem- 
ories, and  revive  the  faith  and  hope  that  criminal  ambition 
has  all  but  killed.  This  healthful  and  reconstructive  social 
reaction — reconstructive  because  reaction  is  never  complete 
if  it  does  not  add  something  to  the  sum  of  progress — has  not 
been  possible  in  Mexico  because  Mr.  Wilson,  always  im- 
placable, has  vowed  upon  the  altar  of  his  animosity  that  the 
Mexican  ex-governing  classes  must  perish,  or  be  satisfied  to 
live  in  slavery  under  the  tyrannical  yoke  of  the  northern  con- 
querors. Only  the  bandits  may  have  arms  and  ammunition ! 


In  return  for  all  this  paternal  solicitude,  what  did  the 
Mexican  revolutionists  do  during  the  struggle  between  Za- 
pata  and  Villa  against  Carranza?  Humiliate  Mr.  Wilson, 
slight  him,  crush  his  moral  power,  ridicule  his  magisterial 
attitude,  insult  the  American  flag,  assassinate  Americans, 
outrage  American  women,  martyr  their  children,  fire  their 
properties,  spit  upon  the  people's  rights  and  treat  all  for- 
eigners in  Mexico  as  though  they  were  devoid  of  rights.  The 


THE   COLLAPSE   OF  WILSON'S    POLICY    303 

press  in  the  United  States  began  to  see  through  the  mist  and 
to  scrutinize  the  Mexican  liberators  in  the  light  of  fuller 
knowledge.  It  found  that  they  were  nothing  but  bandits 
having  a  semi-military  organization,  corrupted  to  the  very 
core  by  a  set  of  educated  but  unscientific  knaves,  with  a  sur- 
plus of  unprincipled  schemes. 

Uncomfortable  days  were  in  store  for  Mr.  Wilson.  Dr. 
William  Bayard  Hale,  President  Wilson's  ex-confidential 
agent  in  Mexico,  published  an  article  authorized  by  the 
White  House  in  The  World's  Work,  in  which  some  startling 
declarations  were  made.  He  says:  "The  American  forces 
will  be  withdrawn  (from  Vera  Cruz)  just  as  soon  as  con- 
stitutional order  has  been  restored."  In  order  to  keep  this 
promise  President  Wilson  handed  Vera  Cruz  over  in  No- 
vember, 1914,  to  Don  Venustiano  Carranza.  He  was  a  fugi- 
tive from  justice,  who  had  taken  refuge  at  Vera  Cruz  and 
who,  in  order  to  get  possession  of  the  town,  had  threatened 
an  attack  by  the  Constitutionalist  forces  under  General 
Aguilar.  The  latter,  in  order  to  give  weight  to  the  First 
Chief's  pretensions,  issued  orders  to  open  fire  on  the  Amer- 
ican outposts.  In  view  of  this  attitude  on  the  part  of  Senor 
Carranza,  President  Wilson  decreed  the  immediate  with- 
drawal of  the  American  forces,  which  was  carried  out  at  the 
point  of  Constitutionalist  rifles,  General  Funston  taking  in 
his  knapsack  everything  he  ought  to  have  except  the  salute 
to  the  American  flag,  which  was  what  had  ostensibly  brought 
him  to  Vera  Cruz. 

It  occurred  to  Senor  Carranza  in  one  of  his  virulent  at- 
tacks of  hate  to  imitate  a  monstrous  Roman  Caesar  in  his 
vengeance  against  the  City  of  Mexico,  which  had  manifested 
its  abhorrence  for  Constitutionalism.  The  First  Chief  is 
not  capable  of  understanding  how  perfectly  natural  it  was 
for  the  capital  of  Mexico,  the  center  of  its  civilization,  to 
look  with  horror  upon  the  filthy,  unkempt  hordes,  steeped  in 
all  kinds  of  crime,  which  swooped  down  upon  it.  As  Senor 


304      WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT    MEXICO 

Carranza  does  not  possess  the  creative  faculty  it  is  not  pos- 
sible for  him  ever  to  possess  the  real  governing  power. 

To  carry  out  his  atrocious  scheme  of  vengeance  against  the 
City  of  Mexico,  Senor  Carranza  determined  to  starve  its 
half-million  inhabitants,  by  robbing  them  of  all  their  provi- 
sions, and  shipping  them  to  Vera  Cruz.  The  capital  was  be- 
ing besieged  by  the  Zapatistas,  and  in  order  to  prevent  the 
evacuation  of  the  city  by  its  inhabitants  the  First  Chief  for- 
bade the  running  of  trains  for  the  accommodation  of  the 
people.  There  were  twelve  thousand  foreigners  in  Mexico 
at  that  time,  including  women  and  children,  two  thousand  of 
whom  were  Americans.  It  would  have  been  a  serious  situa- 
tion for  Mr.  Wilson,  the  omnipotent  representative  of  the 
European  Powers  in  virtue  of  the  Monroe  Doctrine,  to  have 
presented  to  the  world  the  corpses  of  twelve  thousand  of 
their  subjects  committed  to  his  care,  murdered  or  starved  to 
death. 

The  Brazilian  Minister,  charged  with  looking  out  for 
the  interests  of  the  United  States  Government  in  the  City 
of  Mexico,  worked  courageously,  heroically,  with  self-abne- 
gation and  intelligence,  as  he  had  to  deal  with  a  mob  that 
showed  as  much  international  respect  for  the  United  States 
and  its  President  as  it  did  for  a  disarmed  group  of  the 
much-hated  landowners.  The  Socialist  Pinzon,  haranguing 
the  crowds  that  shouted  at  the  doors  of  the  Jockey  Club,  con- 
verted into  the  Temple  of  the  Industrial  Workers  of  the 
World,  the  afternoon  that  the  altars  of  the  church  of  Santa 
Brigida  were  desecrated,  said :  "Boys,  you  all  know  now  of 
how  much  use  the  'gringo  Wilson'  can  be  to  us,  because  he 
is  nothing  more  than  a  Cientifico."  And  the  excited  mob 
yelled  with  delirious  excitement:  "Death  to  the  Cientifico 
Wilson." 

It  can  easily  be  understood  why  during  those  dreadful 
days  the  cable  announced  each  morning:  "Anxiety  in  Wash- 
ington"; "Insomnia  in  Washington";  "Panic  in  Washing- 


THE   COLLAPSE   OF  WILSON'S    POLICY    305 

ton";  "Profound  Unrest  in  Washington."  And  in  Europe, 
notwithstanding  the  war,  disquiet  also  manifested  itself  when 
it  was  seen  that  comfortable  slumber  robes  were  being  made 
out  of  the  cloth  of  the  imposing  Monroe  Doctrine,  by  Za- 
pata,  Villa,  Carranza,  Gutierrez  and  the  rest,  all  proteges  of 
the  White  House.  The  Zapatistas  saved  the  City  of  Mex- 
ico and  made  themselves  popular. 

The  Naco  incident  was  another  humiliation  for  the  Unit- 
ed States  Government.  It  did  not  dare  to  give  the  order 
"Fire!"  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  it  had  threatened  to 
exterminate  Hill  and  Maytorena  if  they  did  not  stop  firing 
shells  into  Douglas.  After  forty-seven  Americans  had  been 
sacrificed,  some  dead,  some  wounded  and  some  injured,  the 
White  House  played  its  trump  card  by  sending  General 
Scott  to  parley  with  the  belligerents,  convincing  them — some 
say  by  means  more  persuasive  than  words — of  the  necessity 
of  comporting  themselves  with  more  respect  and  circumspec- 
tion toward  the  United  States  Government,  which  they  had 
already  sufficiently  outraged. 

At  last  President  Wilson  decided  to  break  with  Mexican 
anarchy  in  favor  of  the  revolutionists  by  the  new  method  of 
extinguishing  a  fire  by  deluging  it  with  gasoline.  When  I 
take  up  the  Columbus  incident  for  consideration  I  shall  con- 
clude my  observations  of  the  greatest  of  President  Wilson's 
errors — recognizing  as  a  de  facto  government  one  whose  acts 
have  proved  it  to  be  a  de  facto  anarchy. 


PART  FOUR 

MEXICO'S  PROBABLE  CONDITION  IN  THE 
IMMEDIATE  FUTURE 


CHAPTER  I 
THE  MAGNITUDE  OF  THE  DISASTER 

THE   FURIOUS   ASSAULT  OF   FAMINE 

IN  Part  First  I  have  proved  that  the  so-called  agrarian 
problem,  which  of  itself  offers  no  difficulty  and  ought 
not  to  cause  the  shedding  of  one  drop  of  blood,  is  dom- 
inated by  the  problem  of  hunger,  a  problem  that  cannot  be 
solved  by  the  favorite  law  of  terror  with  which  the  revo- 
lution attempts  to  solve  all  problems  whatever  their  import 
may  be. 

I  stated,  supported  by  ample  evidence,  that  in  1803  the 
average  yield  of  corn  obtained  by  dry  farming  in  the  cold 
and  temperate  zones  was  seventy-five  hectoliters  per  hectare. 
I  also  proved  that  this  average  had  decreased  in  one  hundred 
years  to  nine  hectoliters  per  hectare.  When  this  decreases  to 
three  hectoliters  per  hectare,  it  will  be  impossible  for  the 
man  depending  upon  agriculture  for  his  living,  to  continue 
to  provide  for  his  family  even  upon  the  present  meagre  scale. 
And  if  we  take  into  consideration  the  frequent  losses  of 
crops,  it  will  only  require  a  decrease  to  four  and  one-half 
hectoliters  per  hectare  to  bring  about  a  critical  state  of  hun- 
ger among  the  people.  To  my  mind  this  problem  may  be 
summed  up  in  the  question,  How  long  will  it  be  before  the 
lands  of  the  cold  and  temperate  zones  will  reach  the  stage 
of  unproductiveness  that  will  render  their  cultivation  eco- 
nomically impossible?  When  I  spoke  before  of  this  serious 
situation  I  said  that,  once  the  production  fell  below  the  pres- 
ent nine  hectoliters  per  hectare,  it  would  be  a  question  of 
from  only  fifteen  to  twenty  years  before  an  acute  stage  of 
famine  would  exist. 

307 


308      WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT   MEXICO 

The  Diaz  administration  understood  this  economic  situa- 
tion. It  has  always  been  ignored  by  the  revolutionists.  They 
turned  their  attention  to  the  tillers  of  the  soil  with  no  other 
thought  in  mind  than  that  of  inciting  them  to  revolt  in  order 
to  bring  about  a  great  social  revolution  which  would  further 
their  own  selfish  personal  interests. 

The  problem  of  hunger  caused  by  the  exhaustion  of  the 
lands  of  the  cold  and  temperate  zones,  given  over  almost 
exclusively  to  corn  dry  farming,  has  one  solution  only,  the 
substitution  of  the  intensive  for  the  extensive  method  of  cul- 
tivation. The  former  has  to  be  done  entirely  by  irrigation. 
From  scientific  estimates  it  has  been  computed  that  with  from 
$700,000,000  to  $800,000,000  gold,  honestly  spent  in  irri- 
gation plants,  a  sufficient  quantity  of  land  could  be  irrigated 
in  fifteen  years  to  produce  enough  food  at  a  reasonable  price 
to  feed  a  population  of  20,000,000  inhabitants,  and  do  away 
with  the  frequent  famines  that  are  such  drawbacks  to  the 
progress  and  well-being  of  the  nation. 

The  present  revolution  has  cost  the  unfortunate  Mexican 
people  up  to  date,  March  15,  1913,  approximately: 

Destruction  of  Mexican  property 1,000,000,000  pesos 

Probable  amount  of  foreign  claims 1,000,000,000 

For   the   reconstruction   and   equipping  of  rail- 
roads    150,000,000 

Probable    railway    debt    from    destruction    of 

roadbeds  and  rolling  stock 150,000,000 

Minimum   issue  of  paper  money  by  the   revo- 
lutionists      500,000,000 

Minimum  issue  of  paper  money  by  the  banks..  150,000,000 

Gold  and  silver  coin  taken  out  of  the  country..  160,000,000 

Increase  of  the  public  debt  240,000,000 

Left -by  the  dictator,  General  Porfirio  Diaz,  in 

the  National  Treasury   62,000,000 

Total   3,412,000,000  pesos 

It  will  be  seen  from  this  that  the  glorious  revolution, 
carried  on  especially  for  the  benefit  of  the  poor,  has  cost  the 
Mexican  people  double  the  amount  in  gold  that  it  would 


THE    MAGNITUDE    OF   THE    DISASTER       309 

have  cost  to  have  irrigated  the  land  and  to  have  thus  pre- 
vented the  famine  that  may  eventually  send  the  majority  of 
them  to  the  grave.  I  proved  that  the  Diaz  administration 
was  prepared  in  1908  to  spend  90,000,000  pesos  for  irriga- 
tion. The  work  was  suspended  and  contracts  nullified  by  the 
revolution  of  1910.  Madero  planned  a  work  of  liberty  and 
succeeded  in  overthrowing  the  dictatorship  by  means  of  a 
campaign  of  hatred.  This  was  the  inevitable  result  in  a  coun- 
try where  the  people  were  unfit  for  liberty.  This  same 
hatred  for  the  Government  caused  the  fall  of  Madero.  It 
was  subsequently  transferred  to  Huerta,  and  is  now  being 
displayed  toward  Carranza. 

The  "regenerating"  cyclone  had  made  the  country  lose 
six  years,  from  1910  to  1916,  which  might  have  been  de- 
voted uninterruptedly  to  carrying  out  the  plans  for  irriga- 
tion which  the  dictatorship  had  under  consideration.  Even 
if  the  work  of  irrigation  were  begun  at  once,  the  probabili- 
ties are  that  it  would  take  from  nine  to  fourteen  years  to 
stay  the  famine  crisis  which  the  nation  is  now  facing.  It 
will  be  necessary  first  to  put  an  end  to  the  present  state  of 
anarchy.  How  soon  this  will  be  cannot  be  determined,  but 
in  any  event  it  will  not  be  soon,  as  I  shall  explain  later  on. 

Mexico  must  have  many  million  pesos  of  foreign  capital 
before  she  can  proceed  with  the  necessary  irrigation  work, 
and  to  accomplish  this  even  on  a  small  scale  it  will  be  abso- 
lutely necessary  for  her  to  reestablish  her  public  and  private 
credit,  completely  lost  by  the  revolution's  direful  program  of 
vengeance,  theft  and  demolition.  If  the  total  Mexican  pub- 
lic debt  could  be  estimated  at  this  moment  it  would  be  nec- 
essary for  the  Government  to  set  aside  at  least  seventy-five 
per  cent  of  its  annual  revenues  to  meet  it,  corresponding  to 
the  maximum  revenues  collected  before  this  much-lauded  re- 
demptory  revolution.  As  anarchy  is  likely  to  continue  its 
redeeming  work,  it  is  almost  certain  that  with  one  year 
more  of  this  excellent,  fructifying  redemption,  the  Mexican 


3io      WHOLE   TRUTH    ABOUT    MEXICO 

Government  will  be  obliged  to  set  aside  a  sum  equivalent  to 
its  entire  revenue  in  its  most  prosperous  times  to  meet  the 
public  debt. 

Taking  into  consideration  probabilities,  or  we  might  say, 
facts,  it  will  not  be  possible  for  Mexico  to  obtain  an  annual 
loan  of  $100,000,000  gold  to  enable  it  to  carry  out  in  ten 
years  its  irrigation  plans  This,  of  course,  could  be  obtained 
only  under  the  express  and  absolute  condition  that  a  stable 
and  responsible  government  would  be  guaranteed.  Such  a 
government  does  not  exist  in  Mexico  now;  the  country  is 
simply  in  the  hands  of  a  band  of  insatiable  thieves.  As  it  is 
impossible  to  reform  the  Mexican  public  administration  with- 
out the  extermination  of  the  bandits — something  that  can 
be  brought  about  only  by  a  great  moral  revolution — it  can  be 
predicted  with  certainty  almost  that  the  majority  of  the  in- 
habitants of  the  cold  and  temperate  lands  will  be  reduced  to 
a  state  of  abject  misery  or  exterminated  by  the  inexorable 
scourge  of  famine.  It  will  be  difficult  for  the  dying,  and 
for  the  minority  of  the  Mexican  people  who  may  escape  de- 
struction, to  look  with  sentiments  of  gratitude  and  admira- 
tion upon  President  Wilson  and  his  advisers  for  the  effica- 
cious protection  given  by  them  to  the  bandits.  The  latter 
were  the  first  to  submerge  civilization  in  Mexico  and  to  at- 
tempt to  exterminate  the  majority  of  her  inhabitants. 


THE  IMMEDIATE  DANGER  OF  FAMINE 

It  goes  without  saying  that  the  revolutionary  financiers  do 
not  know  the  real  effect  of  paper  money  upon  a  community. 
Government  paper  money  is  a  forced  loan  made  to  the  pub- 
lic, without  interest  and  practically  without  set  time  for  re- 
demption. The  distribution  of  this  forced  loan  does  not 
work  with  equity  for  all  classes  of  society.  The  issue  of 
paper  money  has  very  little  effect  on  the  capitalist,  except 
that  of  enabling  him  to  amass  wealth  with  scandalous  rapid- 


THE   MAGNITUDE   OF   THE   DISASTER       311 

ity;  but  it  imposes  upon  the  already  oppressed  poor  one  of 
the  most  abominable  forms  of  usury.  The  landowners  pro- 
tect themselves  against  its  ravages  by  raising  the  price  of 
their  products,  not  only  as  high  as  may  be  necessary  to  pro- 
tect their  interests,  but  also  high  enough  to  enable  them  to 
realize  enormous  profits,  as  I  shall  demonstrate. 

Mexican  money  has  passed  through  the  following  changes: 

Value  of  Mexican 
Dates  Peso  in  Gold 

May  24,  1911,  fall  of  Diaz $0.4748 

February  19,  1913,  fall  of  Madero .4726 

July  15,  1914,  fall  of  Huerta,  paper  money,  bank 

issue -2938 

October  n,  1915,  recognition  of  Carranza,  Carran- 

cista  paper  money  .0700 

March  7,  1916  -0255 

This  table  amply  demonstrates  the  potential  power  of  the 
revolution  to  bring  the  country  to  the  point  of  disaster.  It 
also  indicates  the  incompetence  of  the  Carrancista  financiers. 

As  we  have  said,  the  issue  of  paper  money  by  the  state  is 
in  reality  a  forced  loan  without  interest  and  without  time 
for  redemption,  and  when  the  paper  money  depreciates  the 
loss  falls  exclusively  upon  the  wage-earning  community,  that 
is,  upon  the  poor,  who  must  live  from  the  proceeds  of  their 
work.  Owing  to  the  exigencies  of  the  revolution  more  than 
1 50,000,000  pesos  bank  paper  money  had  been  issued  in  Mex- 
ico, and  a  minimum  of  500,000,000  pesos  Carrancista  paper 
money.  This  figure  was  given  by  the  First  Chief  himself. 
The  total  of  the  paper  money  recognized  amounts  to  650,- 
000,000  pesos.  The  effects  of  the  depreciation  of  this  has 
fallen  almost  exclusively  upon  the  poor.  Without  doubt 
this  revolution  has  been  carried  out  for  their  benefit,  to  the 
grim  accompaniment  of  hunger,  tears,  sighs  and  official 
schools ! 


3i2      WHOLE   TRUTH    ABOUT    MEXICO 

A  comparison  of  the  salaries  and  day  wages  of  the  Por- 
firian  dictatorship  with  those  of  the  glorious  period  of  re- 
demption gives  the  following: 

Day  Wages  and  Salaries  Day  Wages  and  Salaries 

Wage  Earners  Before  the  Revolution ,    Computed  in  Gold  in 

Computed  in  Gold  March,  1916 

Peon  in  the  cold  and  temperate 

zone,  day  wage  $0.185  $0.0630 

Skilled  workman  1.125  .1140 

Mason  in  Mexico   .75  .1020 

Employee,  Federal  Government, 

daily  average  salary 2.50  «i275 

State  Government  employee,  aver- 
age daily  wage  1.25  .1657 

Private  employee,  daily  average 

salary 1.50  -1698 

I  have  computed  the  daily  earnings  of  the  private  em- 
ployees at  $0.1698,  because  their  salaries  have  been  doubled 
on  account  of  the  depreciation  of  the  paper  money.  The 
Government  has  doubled  the  salaries  of  the  school  teachers 
all  over  the  country,  the  other  employees  receiving  an  in- 
crease of  twenty  per  cent  in  the  City  of  Mexico  only.  Even 
taking  these  increases  into  account,  and  even  if  all  salaries 
were  doubled,  the  original  salaries  and  day  wages  have  been 
so  enormously  reduced  by  the  depreciation  of  the  currency 
that  all  wage  earners  have  practically  been  reduced  to  the 
lowest  stages  of  misery.  Let  us  see  what  salaries  and  day 
wages  amount  to,  computed  in  corn,  which  now,  more  than 
ever,  represents  the  exclusive,  or  almost  exclusive,  article  of 
food.  In  the  first  half  of  March,  1916,  the  average  price 
of  a  hectoliter  of  corn  in  the  most  densely  populated  part  of 
the  Republic  was  80  pesos  Carrancista  paper  money 


THE   MAGNITUDE   OF   THE   DISASTER       313 

SALARIES  AND  DAY  WAGES  COMPUTED  IN  CORN  AT  80  PESOS  PER 
HECTOLITER 

Wage  Earners  Before  Ike  Redemptory    After  the  Rcdemplory 

Revolution  Revolution 

Peon  in  the  temperate  and  cold 

zone,  daily  wage    9,248  grammes      3,150  grammes 

Skilled  workman,   daily  wage..  42,188  4>275 

Mason  in  Mexico  City   28,125  3*825 

Federal    Government    employee, 

average  daily  wage 93>75o  4.782 

State      Government      employee, 

average  daily  wage 46,875  5,738 

Private  employee,  average  daily 

wage  56,250  2,869 

The  foregoing  table  proves  that  this  revolution  for  the 
poor  has  been  a  scourge,  not  a  redemption.  A  family  of  five, 
which  can  live  on  four  daily  adult  rations,  is  obliged  to  sub- 
sist in  a  semi-acute  state  of  hunger  upon  not  more  than  two 
thousand  grammes  of  corn  a  day.  The  Mexican  people  are 
very  near  the  semi-acute  state  of  hunger,  which  can  only  be 
endured  for  a  few  months;  and  they  are  even  near  the  acute 
state,  which  kills  in  a  few  days.  To  reach  this,  thereby  com- 
pleting the  work  of  redemption,  all  that  will  be  necessary 
will  be  one  year  of  poor  crops,  or  that  the  disproportion  be- 
tween the  depreciation  of  the  paper  money  and  the  increase 
in  salaries  and  day  wages  continue  on  the  same  scale,  or, 
more  properly  speaking,  that  the  actual  salaries  and  day 
wages  continue  to  decrease  at  the  present  alarming  rate. 

It  is  not  possible  at  this  time  to  estimate  the  corn  crop 
gathered  in  December,  1915,  because,  although  the  price  of 
a  hectoliter,  estimated  in  gold,  is  more  or  less  what  it  was 
previous  to  the  revolution,  when  the  crop  was  good,  the 
planter  cannot,  in  case  the  crops  have  been  only  medium  or 
bad,  keep  the  grain  stored  for  fear  of  its  being  stolen,  and, 
consequently,  sells  it  as  soon  as  possible.  Not  until  July 
next  shall  we  know  if  in  the  last  half  of  the  present  year  a 
state  of  absolute  famine  will  exist  in  Mexico. 


3H      WHOLE   TRUTH    ABOUT    MEXICO 

NEW  DEVICES  TO  ANNIHILATE  THE   POOR 

After  bringing  the  working  classes  to  the  brink  of  the 
grave  by  the  reduction  in  salaries  and  wages  caused  by  the 
depreciated  currency,  the  revolutionists  issued  an  order — 
with  a  view  to  ameliorating  their  condition — in  virtue  of 
which  all  tenants  were  relieved  of  the  obligation  of  paying 
rent  when  this  was  below  one  hundred  pesos  a  month.  This 
order  has  ruined  all  small  property  owners  throughout  Mex- 
ico. Those  who  depended  entirely  upon  their  rents  for  their 
livelihood  are  in  some  cases  face  to  face  with  absolute  star- 
vation. 

It  is  not  possible  to  fight  against  plutocracies,  and  the  rich 
in  general,  if  one  cannot  count  upon  men  in  the  Government 
service  whose  honesty  is  beyond  question.  Otherwise,  the 
rich  can  easily  buy  up  corrupt  officials,  making  the  unfortu- 
nate public  stand  the  additional  cost.  The  farmers  are  in 
league  with  the  Constitutionalist  officers,  who  permit  them  to 
raise  the  price  of  corn  as  high  as  possible,  compelling  the 
poor  to  pay  far  more  than  they  ever  paid  during  the  dictator- 
ship, which  never  permitted  excessive  prices  to  be  demanded 
for  articles  of  prime  necessity.  The  Constitutionalist  sub- 
ordinate chiefs  and  officers  have  confiscated  all  freight  cars, 
classifying  them  as  dwellings,  which  are  to  be  used  for  mil- 
itary purposes  only.  A  merchant  may  obtain  cars  for  the 
transportation  of  merchandise  only  by  paying  the  exorbitant 
sum  of  five,  ten  or  fifteen  thousand  pesos  paper  for  each  car, 
an  expense  that  is  charged  to  the  consumer. 

The  revolutionary  Government  forbids  the  exportation  of 
grain,  cattle,  breeding  stock,  hides,  and  cotton.  But  here, 
too,  the  Constitutionalist  chiefs  are  in  league  with  the  ex- 
porters, and  unblushingly  permit  them  to  evade  the  law, 
thereby  increasing  their  revenues  at  the  expense  of  the  un- 
fortunate poor.  The  Constitutionalist  chiefs,  with  a  few  rare 
exceptions,  have  gone  into  the  field  of  illegitimate  business, 


THE    MAGNITUDE    OF   THE    DISASTER       315 

besides  having  openly  helped  themselves  to  public  funds  and 
to  every  sort  of  movable  and  immovable  private  property  they 
could  lay  their  hands  upon.  This  truly  inestimable  service  of 
robbing  the  poor,  carried  to  an  extreme  never  known  before, 
is  perfectly  logical,  because  a  revolution  that  has  made  theft 
its  doctrine,  its  incentive,  its  passion,  its  legislative  work,  its 
administrative  method,  its  supreme  ideal,  its  one  and  only 
thought,  could  hardly  have  produced  real  statesmen.  Its  of- 
ficials are  a  set  of  grafters,  pure  and  simple,  and  public  opin- 
ion stands  aghast  in  the  presence  of  a  situation  such  as  that 
disclosed  by  this  stupendous  collection  of  grafters  and  crooks 
of  all  classes,  sizes,  races  and  professions,  who  pose  as  a  gov- 
erning body.  It  has  reached  a  point  when  to  be  a  revolution- 
ist is  synonymous  with  being  a  thief,  and  even  though  an  oc- 
casional honest  man  may  be  found  in  the  ranks  of  these  so- 
called  reformers,  they  must  be  either  crazy  or  strangely  dull 
not  to  realize  that  they  have  lost,  or  are  fast  losing,  their 
reputation. 

Never  have  the  poor  of  any  nation  been  so  wantonly 
robbed  as  have  been  the  Mexicans  by  their  so-called  saviors. 
It  passes  belief  that  this  work  of  moral  and  economic  de- 
struction should  have  had  for  its  chief  protector  a  President 
of  the  United  States. 


THE  PARTITION  OF  LAND  A  FIASCO 

The  responsibility  of  the  Mexican  revolutionists  and  their 
protectors  is  immense.  Those  who  have  brought  about  pres- 
ent conditions  in  Mexico  feel  an  overwhelming  political 
weight,  not  that  they  care  about  the  verdict  of  history,  the 
judgment  of  abstract  justice,  the  protests  of  victims,  or  the 
moral  and  material  desolation  of  their  country;  but  because 
they  know  that  public  opinion,  both  national  and  foreign,  pos- 
sesses the  suggestive  power  to  implant  terror  in  the  heart  of 
armies,  demoralize  the  agents  of  crime  and  tyranny,  and  give 


3i6      WHOLE   TRUTH    ABOUT    MEXICO 

to  reactionary  movements  the  strength  to  conquer.  Closely 
pressed  by  the  searching  inquiries  of  the  civilized  world, 
which  demands  to  know  by  what  right  such  an  astounding 
crime  as  the  destruction  of  a  nation  of  fifteen  millions  inhab- 
itants has  been  committed,  the  responsible  ones,  after  much 
deliberation,  decided  to  give  to  the  world  the  wonderful  se- 
crets of  that  revolution,  which  has  had  for  its  component 
parts  vengeance  against  those  who  declined  to  allow  them- 
selves to  be  robbed,  and  public  and  private  theft. 

We  know  that  the  ostensible  object  of  the  revolution  was 
the  distribution  of  land  among  the  poor,  the  destruction  of 
foreign  influence  in  Mexico,  the  extermination  of  obscur- 
antism, and  the  initiation  of  various  reforms.  The  agrarian 
plan  is  supported  by  persons  who  appear  to  be  in  good  faith, 
and  among  these  I  find  four  engineers  and  one  professor, 
constituted  into  an  agrarian  commission,  who  are  the  authors 
of  a  pamphlet  entitled  A  donde  vamosf  (Where  Are  We 
Going?).  After  reading  the  pamphlet,  I  feel  obliged  to 
ratify  the  opinion  I  have  several  times  expressed,  that  it  is 
the  learned  rather  than  the  ignorant  who  have  done  Mexico 
the  most  harm  by  attempting  to  combine  their  learning  and 
their  politics.  The  authors  of  the  pamphlet  I  have  men- 
tioned have  committed  an  error  common  to  all  mediocre 
scientists;  that  is,  giving  too  superficial  consideration  to  seri- 
ous public  and  private  questions. 

In  this  pamphlet  New  Zealand  is,  as  usual,  brought  for- 
ward as  an  example  of  the  methods  that  may  be  adopted 
for  the  partition  of  land,  but  the  writers  have  not  taken  the 
trouble  to  study  the  conditions  that  prevail  in  New  Zealand. 
In  that  country  there  are  magnificent  lands,  with  a  climate 
in  every  way  favorable  for  the  cultivation  of  grain;  there 
are  lands  in  sections  where  the  rainfall  is  irregular  which 
are  not  suitable  for  the  cultivation  of  cereals,  but  which 
afford  excellent  natural  pasture;  and  there  are  lands  which 
are  not  suitable  on  account  of  climatic  conditions  for  either 


THE    MAGNITUDE    OF   THE    DISASTER       317 

agriculture  or  cattle-raising.  The  perusal  of  the  reports 
of  the  various  technical  and  economical  commissions,  which 
have  directed  the  New  Zealand  Government  in  the  distri- 
bution of  the  land,  leaves  no  doubt  that  these  commissions 
advised  the  Government  to  distribute  only  such  arable  land 
as  had  a  suitable  climate.  It  never  occurred  to  them  to  sug- 
gest that  land  suitable  only  for  summer  pasture  should  be 
distributed  for  purposes  of  cultivation.  Moreover,  the  lands 
distributed  were  virgin,  or  almost  entirely  so.  It  is  only 
necessary  for  some  of  our  sages  who  write  so  learnedly  about 
New  Zealand  to  decide  to  reform  conditions  in  Mexico  for 
them  to  reveal  their  ignorance  of  actual  conditions  there. 
I  have  made  it  very  clear  in  Part  First  that  in  the  Republic 
of  Mexico  there  are  no  arable  virgin  lands  in  the  cold  and 
temperate  zones  with  good  climatic  conditions.  On  the 
contrary,  those  that  possess  the  best  climatic  conditions  are 
not  suitable  for  the  formation  of  small  landholdings,  and  are, 
moreover,  almost  if  not  entirely  exhausted.  For  this  reason 
the  planters  have  ceased  to  cultivate  them. 

The  agricultural  conditions  in  New  Zealand  and  Mexico 
being  very  different,  it  is  absurd  to  try  to  apply  to  Mexico 
rules  that  have  worked  successfully  in  New  Zealand. 
Owing  to  lack  of  scientific  knowledge  on  the  part  of  our 
sages,  a  frantic  state  of  enthusiasm  for  the  execution  of  im- 
possible reforms  in  favor  of  the  poor  has  been  created.  This 
exists,  however,  not  among  the  popular  rural  classes,  who 
know  more  about  the  land  question  than  the  learned  engi- 
neers and  agriculturists,  but  among  the  urban  popular,  sub- 
popular  and  middle  classes,  and  in  President  Wilson's  mind 
and  in  that  of  the  American  public.  It  is  true  that  in  Yuca- 
tan the  land  suitable  for  the  cultivation  of  henequen  could 
be  advantageously  distributed ;  but  this  area  is  an  insignifi- 
cant proportion  compared  to  the  total  of  the  cold  and  tem- 
perate lands.  The  revolution  has  presented  the  agrarian 
question  as  a  national  problem,  not  one  restricted  to 


3i8      WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT   MEXICO 

Yucatan.  The  tropical  arable  lands  of  Morelos  would  also 
be  subject  to  advantageous  subdivision,  and  there  must  be 
others  similar  to  these  in  the  Republic.  But  if  the  benefit 
of  distribution  does  not  embrace  the  great  majority  of  the 
popular  rural  classes,  who  are  the  needy  ones,  the  only  con- 
clusion to  be  drawn  is  that  the  revolution  is  worthy  of  con- 
demnation only,  for  having  brought  the  unfortunate  Mex- 
ican nation  to  its  present  plight  of  moral  and  economic 
misery  without  offering  any  adequate  recompense  for  the 
sacrifices  exacted.  The  distribution  of  lands  has  been  the 
concoction  of  unscientific  sages,  uneducated  visionaries  and 
unpatriotic  knaves. 

Senor  Cabrera  has  attempted  to  solve  the  agrarian  ques- 
tion by  reinstating  the  towns  in  their  original  rights  over 
the  lands  formerly  controlled  by  the  municipality.  Appar- 
ently under  his  plan  it  is  of  no  consequence  whether  the 
lands  belong  to  the  planters,  to  the  villages  or  to  the  poor 
farmers.  But  if,  as  we  now  know,  the  great  majority  of 
the  lands  in  the  cold  and  temperate  zones  are  no  longer  of 
any  value  as  great,  medium  or  small  landholdings,  it  is 
nothing  short  of  the  most  shocking  perversity,  stupidity  or 
ignorance  to  inaugurate  tremendously  destructive  conflicts 
in  order  to  establish  the  ownership  of  something  that  is  abso- 
lutely worthless.  I  have  stated  and  proved  that  in  case  these 
arable  lands,  with  a  climate  suitable  for  the  advantageous 
establishment  of  small  landholdings,  had  existed,  the  distri- 
bution would  have  been  carried  out  without  the  shedding 
of  blood,  because  the  few  opposers  would  not  even  have  had 
recourse  to  argument,  knowing  that  they  could  not  count 
upon  an  appreciable  support  to  oppose  the  real  social  and 
governmental  will. 

What  has  been  the  practical  result  of  this  great  revolu- 
tionary promise  after  twenty  months'  triumph  of  the  revo- 
lution? Failure!  The  law  of  January  6,  1915,  issued  by 
the  First  Chief,  decreeing  the  reestablishment  cf  the  munici- 


THE   MAGNITUDE   OF  THE   DISASTER       319 

pal  ownership  of  land,  is  not  the  fulfillment  of  this  promise, 
but  the  making  of  a  new  one — also  to  be  broken — because 
in  order  to  divide  the  lands  it  will  be  necessary  for  the  Con- 
stitutionalist chiefs  to  return  the  lands  they  have  stolen.  If 
the  First  Chief  exacts  this  they  will  declare  him  a  traitor 
to  the  real  and  sacred  principles  of  the  revolution — public 
and  private  pillage — and  will  either  kill  him  or  depose  him 
from  his  high  office.  The  distribution  of  lands,  that  fair 
promise  which  has  been  the  fountainhead  of  this  torrent  of 
tragedies,  crimes  and  shamelessness,  has  been  set  aside  until 
such  time  as  the  First  Chief,  being  transformed  into  a  states- 
man, will  know  what  he  should  do — and  this  will  never 
come  to  pass. 

THE   PATRIOTIC   ANTI-FOREIGN   WAR   A   FIASCO 

The  culminating  lie — the  merciless  exploitation  of  the 
Mexican  people  by  the  cupidity  of  foreign  capitalists — 
swallowed  with  all  its  garnishings  by  President  Wilson, 
caused  him  to  say  to  Mr.  Samuel  G.  Ely  the  on  May  23, 
1914,  in  the  interview  in  The  Saturday  Evening  Post  from 
which  I  have  already  quoted:  "Second — No  personal  ag- 
grandizement by  American  investors  or  adventures  or  cap- 
italists, or  exploitation  of  that  country,  will  be  permitted." 
When  he  uttered  these  imposing  words  President  Wilson 
forgot  that  for  a  whole  year  he  had  protected  the  mercenary 
band  of  Americans  who,  in  company  with  the  most  atrocious 
of  the  Mexican  bandits,  had  established  in  unmolested  tran- 
quillity on  United  States  territory  a  great  market  for  the 
disposal  of  the  loot  collected  all  over  the  downtrodden, 
blood-stained  Republic  of  Mexico. 

I  do  not  know  of  any  greater,  more  barefaced,  more  de- 
grading theft  perpetrated  against  the  Mexican  people  by 
foreigners  than  the  one  I  have  just  mentioned.  The  revo- 
lutionists have  been  '.the  great  protectors  of  foreign  thieves 


320      WHOLE   TRUTH    ABOUT    MEXICO 

and  continue  to  be  so.  I  have  stated,  amply  substantiating 
my  statement,  that  during  the  Porfirian  dictatorship  almost 
all  the  great  foreign  capital  invested  in  Mexico  operated  for 
the  good  of  the  people,  delivering  them  from  the  overwhelm- 
ing misery  that  had  kept  them  semi-savage  and  in  a  state 
of  anarchy.  The  assertion  that  foreign  capital,  especially 
American  capital,  was  the  vampire  that  had  sucked  the  blood 
of  the  Aztec  people  to  the  point  of  inebriation,  was  the  lie 
that  fomented  the  Boxer  feeling  which  transformed  the  heart 
of  the  revolution  into  that  of  a  hyena.  It  served,  as  Senor 
Carranza  declared  to  Senor  Aldo  Baroni,  as  an  unworthy 
party  weapon  for  the  desperate  Constitutionalists  when  they 
saw  that  the  public  had  no  use  for  the  Constitution,  or  for 
those  who  proclaimed  it. 

Immediately  after  the  recognition  of  this  government  as 
a  de  facto  government,  Senor  Carranza  proceeded  to  keep 
his  promise  of  preserving  the  Mexican  people  independent 
of  foreign  capital,  which  had  caused  such  grave  damages  to 
the  fatherland,  by  sending  Senor  Luis  Cabrera,  Secretary 
of  the  Treasury  of  the  de  facto  Government,  to  New  York 
to  negotiate  a  loan  of  $250,000,000  (for  the  affairs  of  state 
and  the  needs  of  the  First  Chief's  friends)  with  the  much- 
despised  foreign  banking  corporations.  The  terms  proposed 
were  most  humiliating  and  if  they  had  been  accepted,  Mex- 
ico would  have  been  placed  in  very  much  the  same  financial 
position  as  Egypt.  Notwithstanding  Senor  Cabrera's  read- 
iness to  accept  stipulated  conditions,  no  matter  how  hum- 
bling they  might  be  to  the  dignity  of  his  country,  the  bankers 
explained,  as  the  public  knows  from  the  New  York  press, 
that  the  First  Chief  did  not  possess  the  power  to  contract 
foreign  loans  of  any  kind  in  the  name  of  the  Mexican  nation, 
that  the  title  de  facto  of  itself  implied  a  government  of 
short  duration,  one  that,  at  best,  was  destined  to  exist  only 
until  a  constitutional  form  of  government  could  be  estab- 
lished. 


THE    MAGNITUDE    OF   THE    DISASTER       321 

Undaunted  by  Senor  Cabrera's  failure,  Senor  Antonio 
Manero  appeared  in  the  United  States  to  try  to  negotiate  a 
loan  of  $50,000,000.  This  no  doubt  further  impressed  the 
Mexican  people  with  their  enviable  independence  of  foreign 
capital.  From  the  American  press  we  know  the  result  of 
this  transaction.  The  bankers  stipulated  as  the  first  condi- 
tion that  all  custom  house  receipts  were  to  be  handed  over 
to  them,  guarantees  for  the  fulfillment  of  the  contract  being 
given  by  the  United  States  Government,  as  has  been  the 
case  in  Haiti.  The  American  press  announced  that  Senor 
Manero  accepted  the  conditions,  and  the  holocaust  was  pre- 
vented only  because  the  bankers  saw,  when  the  situation  was 
more  carefully  studied,  that  the  Mexican  customs  receipts 
would  not  equal  for  a  long  time  to  come  even  the  sum  neces- 
sary to  cover  the  obligations  solemnly  contracted  toward 
the  holders  of  foreign  government  bonds,  and  this  respon- 
sibility was  recognized  as  indisputably  legitimate  by  the 
Constitutionalist  Government.  Still  undaunted,  the  de 
facto  Government  sent  Senor  Palavicini  to  New  York 
to  cooperate  with  the  Mexican  Ambassador,  Senor  Eliseo 
Arredondo,  to  obtain  a  loan  of  at  least  $10,000,000.  Once 
more  let  us  see  what  the  New  York  press  had  to  say.  It 
informed  the  American  public  that  the  bankers  had  not  hesi- 
tated to  say  to  the  Carranza  representatives  that  it  was  not 
possible  to  lend  a  single  dollar  to  Mexico,  or  to  go  surety 
for  a  single  rifle  or  cartridge,  as  the  country's  bankruptcy 
was  not  only  financial  but  moral,  the  Carranza  Administra- 
tion having  the  wTell-established  reputation  of  being  an  ad- 
ministration of  insatiable  thieves. 

Everything  in  the  matter  of  loans  undertaken  by  the  de 
facto  Government  has  been  a  failure.  Even  the  mea  culpa 
humbly  offered  to  American  bankers  upon  bended  knee  by 
the  leaders  of  the  movement  to  make  Mexico  financially  in- 
dependent of  the  hateful  and  anti-patriotic  foreign  capital, 
failed.  President  Wilson's  recognition  of  the  de  facto  Gov- 


322      WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT   MEXICO 

ernment  did  not  obtain  for  it  one  single  dollar,  but  com- 
pletely stultified  the  Constitutionalists,  who  were  already 
smacking  their  lips  over  the  prospective  haul. 

THE    REGENERATION    OF    THE    PEOPLE    BY    MEANS    OF    THE 
SCHOOL   A   FIASCO 

It  is  an  indisputable  fact  that  the  Porfirian  dictatorship 
established  eleven  thousand  primary  lay  schools.  It  is  also 
undeniable  that  although  the  people  had  the  right  to  revolt 
against  the  dictatorship,  the  manner  in  which  the  revolt 
was  executed,  the  frightful  means  employed,  the  criminal 
character  of  its  ideals,  the  manifestations  of  hatred  against 
everything  that  stands  for  civilization,  the  savage,  prehistoric 
nature  of  its  political  passions,  prove  either  that  the  people 
have  derived  no  benefit  whatever  from  these  eleven  thousand 
schools,  or  that  their  influence  has  been  pernicious.  The 
Argentenian  writer,  Foppa,  commenting  upon  this  deplor- 
able phenomenon,  said  that  the  uprising  of  the  Mexican 
people  was  preeminently  an  uprising  against  the  eleven 
thousand  schools.  From  the  fact  that  after  twenty-five 
years  of  school  attendance  the  Mexican  people  have  obtained 
no  better  results  than  a  savage  revolution,  compels  one  to 
denounce  the  schools  or  the  people  who  attended  them.  One 
would  naturally  cry:  No  more  schools  because  they  are 
useless,  if  not  actually  productive  of  pernicious  results. 

When  a  race  loses  completely  the  moral  sense  that  has 
been  formed  by  centuries  of  human  customs  and  beliefs; 
when  man  unconsciously  becomes  the  implacable  enemy  of 
his  fellow  men,  something  foreign  even  to  the  beast;  when 
a  people  has  lost  the  instinct  of  self-preservation,  the  love 
of  the  past,  which  is  the  true  fatherland,  and  the  respect  it 
should  have  for  the  wisdom  and  beauty  it  possesses  in  the 
present;  when  it  has  lost  faith  in  greatness,  pity  for  human 
suffering,  contact  with  the  spiritual  atmosphere;  when  it  is 
atheistic,  not  because  of  scientific  conviction,  but  because  it 


THE    MAGNITUDE    OF   THE    DISASTER       323 

is  on  a  level  with  the  brutes;  when  it  kills  for  the  sake  of 
killing;  when  it  hates  because  it  is  told  to  do  so;  when  it 
attacks  because  it  is  thrust  into  the  combat;  when  not  even 
the  gratification  of  vice  makes  life  dear;  when  everything 
in  it  is  a  mixture  of  primitiveness  and  degeneration,  then 
the  school  must  fail,  as  liberty,  religion,  democracy,  civiliza- 
tion and  patriotism  have  failed ;  only  the  inexorable  law  of 
selection  will  not  fail. 

A  well-informed  Cuban  said  to  me :  "In  Cuba  the 
schools  gain  daily  in  efficiency  and  the  moral  sense  of  the 
people  degenerates.  It  cannot  be  doubted  that  the  demo- 
cratic schools  in  my  dear  Cuba  are  not  suited  to  form 
democrats."  An  English  pedagogue  has  asserted  that  the 
school  which  has  made  the  English  what  they  are,  perverts 
the  Hindoos.  A  German  pedagogue  asserts  that  each  nation 
should  have  a  system  of  education  suited  to  its  moral  and 
intellectual  idiosyncrasies.  In  Mexico  the  German  system 
has  been  tried  on  the  Indians  of  Vera  Cruz;  the  French  on 
those  of  Puebla;  the  American  on  those  of  Guerrero;  the 
Italian  on  those  of  Zacatecas,  and  the  Ferrer  system  on  those 
of  Chihuahua.  The  inevitable  outcome  of  this  method  has 
been  the  brutalizing  of  the  Indians.  If  pedagogy  does  not 
take  primal  matter  into  consideration,  education  is  not  sci- 
ence but  a  scourge,  the  destroyer  of  customs,  of  religions,  of 
ideals,  leaving  the  perverted  understanding  of  the  inferior 
race  to  be  filled  with  the  teaching  of  the  incomprehensible 
and  the  abstract.  This  is  equivalent  to  attempting  to  teach 
an  absolutely  illiterate  subject  arithmetic  by  presenting  to 
him  as  an  introduction  Laplace's  Mechanics  of  the  Heavens. 
There  are  diverse  religions,  because  there  are  diverse  races, 
just  as  there  are  diverse  political  constitutions,  because  there 
are  diverse  peoples,  and  as  there  is  a  diversity  in  the  char- 
acter and  extent  of  criminality  and  of  everything  that  flows 
from  the  diversity  of  the  sub-species  developed  within  the 
human  species. 


324      WHOLE   TRUTH    ABOUT    MEXICO 

As  we  have  seen,  and  as  we  shall  continue  to  see,  the  rev- 
olutionary program  has  been  a  complete  failure,  without, 
however,  affecting  in  any  wise  the  progress  of  the  revolu- 
tion. Although  this  is  not  the  place  to  make  a  study  of 
Mexican  pedagogy,  it  is  possible  to  measure  the  value  of  the 
popular  school  in  Mexico  by  noting  the  decisive  part  taken 
by  school  teachers  in  the  revolution.  Luis  Cabrera,  the  great 
intellect  of  Carrancism,  as  he  has  been  called,  is  an  ex- 
schoolmaster,  as  are  also  Antonio  Villarreal,  Constitutional- 
ist general,  ex-governor  of  the  state  of  Nuevo  Leon  and  ex- 
president  of  the  Convention  of  Aguascalientes ;  Otilio  Mon- 
tano,  Zapatista  general  and  counsellor  to  the  bandit ;  Manuel 
Chao,  Villista  general  and  ex-governor  of  Chihuahua;  Brau- 
lio  Hernandez,  supporter  of  the  Vasquez  revolution  and  ex- 
Secretary  of  Abraham  Gonzalez,  governor  of  Chihuahua; 
Federico  Gurrion,  the  great  Tehuantepec  agitator  who  at- 
tempted to  dismember  the  state  of  Oaxaca;  Figueroa,  revo- 
lutionary leader  in  the  state  of  Guerrero;  Jose  Obregon, 
brother  of  Alvaro  Obregon;  Candido  Navarro,  Maderista 
leader,  who  started  the  revolution  in  Guanajuato  in  1911 
and  invaded  the  state  of  San  Luis  Potosi;  Praxedes  Guer- 
rero, the  socialist  poet  and  general,  who  led  the  Mago- 
nista  movement  in  Chihuahua;  General  Carrera  Torres,  the 
most  celebrated  Constitutionalist  leader  in  the  state  of  San 
Luis  Potosi ;  Colonel  David  Berlanga,  an  orator  and  influen- 
tial agitator,  and  many  other  less  important  ones  whose 
names  I  do  not  remember  but  who  were  representatives  of 
the  Maderista  Congress  of  1912. 

Even  if  the  schools  in  Mexico  had  been  equal  to  the  work 
of  national  regeneration,  the  present  Government  is  not  in 
a  position  to  spend  on  schools  even  one-half  what  was  spent 
under  the  dictatorship.  In  the  City  of  Mexico  and  in  the 
states  o^  Vera  Cruz  and  Yucatan  there  is  a  certain  show  of 
scholarship  which  easily  deceives  fools  who  mistake  card- 
board houses  for  marble  palaces;  but  in  the  remainder  of  the 


THE    MAGNITUDE    OF   THE    DISASTER       325 

states  education  is  a  farce  without  a  trace  of  the  nobility 
that  should  characterize  it — a  whitened  sepulchre  filled  with 
dead  men's  bones.  It  will  be  a  long  time  before  Mexico,  so 
far  as  education  is  concerned,  will  get  back  to  where  she  was 
during  the  dictatorship  of  Diaz.  I  should  call  attention  to 
the  fact  that  neither  General  Diaz  nor  General  Huerta  was 
ever  opposed  to  the  development  of  public  instruction;  on 
the  contrary,  they  furthered  it  as  much  as  lay  in  their  power, 
and  the  revolution  can  never  lay  claim  to  the  institution  of 
free,  obligatory,  lay  schools  as  one  of  its  achievements.  If 
Mexican  blood  had  to  be  drawn  to  further  the  cause  of  pub- 
lic education  it  might  just  as  well  have  been  done  with 
leeches,  because  recourse  to  arms  was  totally  unnecessary. 
It  is  a  significant  commentary  on  the  intellectual  equipment 
of  the  revolutionists  that  not  one  of  them  has  thought  of 
making  the  most  trifling  sacrifice  for  the  furtherance  of  ed- 
ucation. 

THE    PROSPERITY  OF  THE  WORKING-MAN   A   FIASCO 

The  revolution  proclaimed  the  Socialist  doctrine  of  a 
minimum  wage  to  be  fixed  by  the  government,  and  the 
promise  was  fulfilled.  This  reform,  however,  has  not 
brought  about  the  desired  effects.  In  Mexico  the  number  of 
working-men  dying  of  hunger  because  of  lack  of  work  is 
daily  on  the  increase,  as  is  also  the  number  of  those  who  are 
returning  to  their  former  masters  asking  for  work,  quite 
willing  to  forego  the  benefits  of  the  government's  reforms 
in  their  behalf,  and  to  take  any  pay  their  employers  may 
offer.  Only  in  New  Zealand  has  the  government  dared  to 
fix  a  minimum  rate  of  wage,  and  if  the  measure  has  not  pro- 
duced the  disasters  predicted  by  economists,  it  is  due  to  the 
remarkable  prosperity  of  the  English  colony.  There  is  no 
other  country  in  the  world  which  has  taken  upon  itself  the 
heavy  responsibility  of  fixing  by  positive  law  the  minimum 


326      WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT    MEXICO 

rate  of  the  day  wage.  Experts  are  of  the  opinion  that  from 
an  economic  standpoint  it  is  an  extremely  dangerous  measure. 
As  our  revolutionary  intellectuals  belong  to  the  mediocre 
professional  class  they  act  more  unwisely  than  the  fool,  who, 
knowing  himself  to  be  a  fool,  seeks  the  advice  of  those  better 
informed  than  himself.  A  positive  epidemic  of  political  stu- 
pidity must  be  raging  when  such  a  measure  as  the  fixing  of 
the  minimum  wage  is  adopted  in  a  country,  which  is  on  the 
brink  of  ruin,  and  in  imperative  need  of  the  help  of  foreign 
capital  to  stave  off  starvation,  to  reconstruct  its  shattered 
fortunes  and  to  enable  it  to  enter  once  more  into  the  ways 
of  civilization  and  prosperity.  The  surest  means  to  drive 
capital  out  of  a  country,  unless  it  is  in  as  flourishing  a  condi- 
tion as  New  Zealand,  is  undoubtedly  the  fixing  of  the  mini- 
mum wage  by  the  government.  Foreign  and  national  cap- 
italists, who  have  invested  money  in  Mexico  in  enterprises 
which  cannot  easily  be  abandoned,  have  been  forced  to  re- 
sign themselves  to  the  violation  of  a  great  economic  prin- 
ciple, that  of  subjecting  wages  to  the  law  of  supply  and 
demand.  But  capital  is  being  gradually  withdrawn  from 
Mexico,  and  the  capitalist  who  in  other  times  invested  his 
money  there,  creating  remunerative  work,  is  well  aware  to- 
day that  the  country  offers  the  poorest  of  all  investments. 

Such  a  situation  is  disastrous  for  Mexican  industry,  and 
especially  for  the  working-man.  For  him  the  only  alterna- 
tive is  to  die  of  hunger  or  join  the  Carrancista  army,  to  be 
paid  the  equivalent  of  the  lowest  day  wage,  in  depreciated 
paper  money.  Even  this  is  precarious  because  the  nation 
cannot  support  much  longer  an  army  greater  than  its 
strength,  which  is  constantly  and  rapidly  diminishing. 

OTHER  REFORMS  ALSO  A  FIASCO 

Senor  Jose  N.  Macias  explains  to  us  the  remainder  of  the 
great  reforms  which  are  to  effect  the  redemption  of  the 
Mexican  people.  These  are:  the  freedom  of  municipalities; 


THE    MAGNITUDE    OF   THE    DISASTER       327 

the  independence  of  the  judiciary;  the  law  of  divorce  and  the 
working-man's  compensation  law. 

The  so-called  reform  granting  independence  to  municipal- 
ities is  nothing  more  than  a  long-discarded  measure  which 
was  found  stored  away  somewhere  in  the  political  ware- 
house, thrown  out  because  of  its  worthlessness.  In  1861  mu- 
nicipal government  was  established  throughout  the  Republic, 
based  upon  autonomy  which  was  almost  equal  to  sovereignty. 
The  result  was  disastrous  for  the  great  majority  of  the 
towns.  The  municipal  presidents,  treasurers,  and  almost  all 
the  aldermen  began  appropriating  the  municipal  revenues, 
leaving  the  towns  without  lighting  systems,  without  schools, 
without  public  charities,  without  food  for  prisoners,  who 
were  discharged  in  order  to  cut  out  this  expense,  without 
hygienic  improvements  of  any  kind  or  even  the  indispensable 
repairs  needed  to  keep  roads  and  public  thoroughfares  in  a 
passable  condition.  The  infuriated  inhabitants  had  recourse 
to  the  central  government  of  their  respective  states,  petition- 
ing that  the  municipalities  be  deprived  of  their  financial  au- 
tonomy and  that,  with  regard  to  receipts  as  well  as  expendi- 
tures, their  accounts  should  be  subject  to  the  revision  and 
approbation  of  the  State  Treasurer. 

With  regard  to  the  taxes,  only  five  out  of  the  three  thou- 
sand and  more  municipal  treasurers  escaped  being  denounced 
before  the  district  judges  as  having  appropriated  the  public 
funds  under  their  control.  It  was  not  the  Porfirian  dictator- 
ship that  deprived  the  municipalities  of  the  right  to  help 
themselves  to  the  public  funds,  but  the  sovereign  will  of  the 
towns,  publicly  expressed  many  years  before  General  Diaz 
organized  his  dictatorship.  The  failure  of  the  free  munici- 
palities was  one  of  the  many  fiascos  which  have  overtaken 
the  Mexicans  in  their  demented  attempt  to  govern  them- 
selves democratically. 

The  independence  of  the  judiciary  can  only  be  assured — 
and  even  then  not  absolutely — by  establishing  irremovable 


328      WHOLE   TRUTH    ABOUT    MEXICO 

judgeships,  so  long  as  the  incumbent's  conduct  is  exemplary; 
or,  at  least,  by  making  the  term  of  the  chief  justice  double 
that  of  the  President.  In  1893  the  Cientificos  struggled  to 
institute  constitutional  reforms  in  favor  of  the  irremova- 
bility of  the  Federal  chief  justices.  The  bill  was  held  up  in 
the  Senate  by  General  Diaz  after  it  had  passed  the  House, 
and  it  was  Don  Francisco  Madero  who  later  fought  this 
reform,  forcing  the  Senate  to  reject  it  in  1911,  when  it  was 
proposed  for  discussion.  It  is  evident,  then,  that  it  was  the 
revolution  which  gave  this  great  constitutional  reform  its 
death  blow  in  1911.  And  after  such  an  exhibition  of  polit- 
ical depravity  as  this,  we  are  told,  in  1915,  that  it  was  nec- 
essary to  destroy  the  nation  in  order  to  enable  the  revolution 
to  impose  the  necessary  reform  in  regard  to  the  independence 
of  the  judiciary! 

The  divorce  law  will  serve  many  purposes,  other  than  that 
of  conferring  happiness  upon  the  poor.  It  will  not  redeem 
them  from  their  misery,  neither  will  it  alter  their  mode  of  liv- 
ing. According  to  the  statistics  of  the  Civil  Register  of  the 
Federal  District  only  nineteen  out  of  every  hundred  births 
registered  are  legitimate ;  and  if  we  take  into  account  that  the 
higher  classes  represent  approximately  twenty  per  cent  of 
the  population,  and  that  almost  all  the  progeny  of  that  class 
is  legitimate,  it  follows  that  almost  the  entire  lower  class  is 
of  illegitimate  origin.  Since  marriage,  owing  to  lack  of  mo- 
rality among  the  people,  is  not  considered  necessary,  a  di- 
vorce law  would  appear  to  be  more  or  less  of  a  superfluity. 
On  the  other  hand,  in  almost  all  the  marriages  contracted  in 
Mexico  the  woman  is  a  Catholic  and,  as  a  general  thing, 
firm  in  adhering  to  the  precepts  of  the  Church  which  forbid 
divorce.  Moreover,  in  Mexican  society  a  divorced  woman  is 
looked  upon  in  very  much  the  same  light  as  a  concubine,  and 
it  will  be  many  years  before  the  divorce  law  will  be  the  law 
of  our  social  life.  One  must  be  utterly  bereft  of  reason  to 
imagine  for  a  moment  that  the  institution  of  the  divorce  law 


THE    MAGNITUDE    OF   THE    DISASTER        329 

in  Mexico  merits  one  fraction  of  the  sacrifices  the  revolu- 
tion has  inflicted  upon  the  Mexican  people. 

The  working-man's  compensation  law  is  not  an  unheard- 
of  proposition  in  Mexico,  nor  is  it  being  advanced  now  for 
the  first  time.  General  Bernardo  Reyes  framed  a  good  law 
covering  accidents  to  working-men  during  the  dictatorship 
of  General  Diaz.  In  1908,  Sefior  Ramon  Corral,  then  Sec- 
retary of  the  Interior,  commissioned  me  to  draft  a  complete 
plan  for  him  of  the  code  governing  the  working-man's  com- 
pensation law,  in  so  far  as  it  had  any  bearing  upon  economic 
questions.  I  accepted  the  task  and  had  almost  completed  my 
work  when  the  Madero  revolution  broke  out.  While  Con- 
gress was  in  session,  from  September  15  to  December  15, 
1911,  bills  fairly  rained  in  concerning  the  working-man's 
compensation  law,  child  labor,  unsanitary  working  condi- 
tions, working-men's  protective  associations,  the  establish- 
ment of  savings  banks,  and  all  manner  of  laws  favorable  to 
the  laboring  classes  that  the  government  of  the  most  civ- 
ilized industrial  nations  have  adopted  in  their  favor.  In 
September,  1912,  the  triumph  of  the  revolution  was  assured, 
as  the  Madero  faction  had  an  overwhelming  majority  in  the 
House.  The  Catholic  faction,  representing  the  minority  in 
the  House,  was  in  favor  of  the  enactment  of  a  working- 
man's  compensation  law,  covering  all  the  legitimate  claims 
of  the  working  class,  with  all  the  socialist  concessions  that 
have  been  granted  to  them  even  in  the  countries  that  are 
most  strongly  influenced  by  the  doctrine  of  individualism. 

Why  did  this  overwhelming  Maderista  majority  not  pass 
the  reforms  proposed  for  the  betterment  of  the  condition  of 
the  working  class?  Sefior  Ramon  Prida  has  given  the  cor- 
rect answer.  He  says:  "Once  the  representatives  were  in- 
stalled, the  House  took  up  its  work,  or  to  be  more  exact,  in- 
augurated a  campaign  of  vilification  such  as  has  never  been 
witnessed  in  any  other  parliamentary  body.  During  the  reg- 
ular session;  that  is,  from  September  i6th  to  December  I5th, 


330      WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT    MEXICO 

nothing  for  the  good  of  the  country  was  accomplished  by  the 
House.  It  looked  as  though  the  representatives  had  come 
together  for  no  other  purpose  than  that  of  vilifying  each 
other  and  absentees,  who  could  not  defend  themselves.  The 
chairmen  who  were  elected  during  September,  October,  No- 
vember and  December  were  absolutely  impotent  to  keep  the 
ultra-radicals  in  check.  And  to  make  matters  worse,  the 
Government,  notwithstanding  the  unedifying  spectacle  pre- 
sented by  this  body  of  legislators,  called  for  an  extra  session 
of  Congress,  which,  convening  in  the  latter  part  of  Decem- 
ber, was  in  session  until  the  overthrow  of  the  Madero  Gov- 
ernment. 

"Individually  there  were  many  intelligent,  educated  and 
even  truly  patriotic  representatives,  but  the  collective  work 
of  the  body  was  devoid  of  effects,  and  the  isolated  efforts  of 
the  few  were  lost  in  that  turbulent  mob  which  Senor  Gustavo 
Madero  tried  in  vain  to  hold  in  check."1 

Senor  Prida's  words  are  confirmed  by  Senor  Fernandez 
Giiell  who,  as  will  be  remembered,  was  a  fervid  Maderista 
and  is  now  an  impassioned  Carrancista,  so  much  so  that  he 
assures  us  that  Don  Venustiano  Carranza  is  "cast  in  the 
mould  of  immortality,"  and  that  he  shed  "a  molten  tear" 
upon  Madero's  grave.  He  says:  "One  of  the  first  acts  of 
the  new  representatives  was  to  raise  their  salaries  from  the 
previous  two  hundred  and  fifty  pesos  monthly  to  five  hun- 
dred pesos.  Nothing  was  proposed  with  a  view  to  arrang- 
ing the  difficulties  with  Zapata  in  the  south,  or  to  solve  the 
problem  in  the  north.  The  Maderista  element  rested  on  its 
laurels  as  though  contact  with  power  had  benumbed  its  en- 
ergies. Huerta  himself  seemed  less  brilliant  and  persuasive 
than  upon  other  occasions."  2 

That  same  revolutionary  Maderista  majority,  which  styled 
itself  progressive,  which  through  fear,  cupidity,  shameless- 

1  Ramon  Prida,  De  la  Dictadura  a  la  Anarquia,  p  409. 

2  Fernandez  Giiell,  Episodios  de  la  Revolution  Mexicana,  p.  162. 


THE    MAGNITUDE    OF   THE    DISASTER       331 

ness  or  its  inherent  capacity  for  treason,  had  sanctioned  the 
Huerta  coup,  had  opportunities,  when  it  was  converted  into 
a  grovelling  Huerta  instrument,  to  introduce  bills,  with 
Huerta's  decided  support,  for  the  betterment  of  the  condi- 
tion of  the  poor,  and  was  morally  obliged  to  pass  the  bill 
introduced  into  the  House  during  the  Huerta  administration 
by  Senor  Toribio  Esquivel  Obregon,  Secretary  of  the  Treas- 
ury, asking  in  the  Chief  Executive's  name  for  an  appropria- 
tion of  several  million  pesos  to  buy  lands  from  private  indi- 
viduals to  be  distributed  among  the  poor.  The  solution  of 
the  agrarian  question,  as  Senor  Carranza  pretended  to  under- 
stand it  in  1915,  was  formerly  initiated  by  General  Huerta 
before  the  revolutionary  House  of  Representatives,  the  ma- 
jorky  of  whose  members  were  unworthy  to  represent  the  na- 
tion. 

I  concede  that  among  the  military  and  civilian  revolu- 
tionists there  are  many  who  are  in  good  faith,  many  who 
have  worked,  some  who  have  even  made  sacrifices,  for  the 
realization  of  possible  and  impossible  ideals.  Unfortunately 
for  the  Mexican  people,  these  representative  men  are  not  at 
the  head  of  the  movement;  on  the  contrary,  almost  all  the 
leaders  are  representatives  of  an  old  element,  emanating  from 
the  cancerous  core  of  Reyism.  The  revolution  will  have  to 
continue  until  it  produces  great  moral  effects  which  will 
eliminate  all  this  decayed  political  vegetation  and  give  the 
new  element  a  chance  to  reveal  itself  in  all  its  power,  pro- 
vided that  this  also  be  not  of  the  same  category. 

THE  REVOLUTION'S  FINANCIAL  FIASCO 

The  Diaz  financial  administration,  directed  by  Senor 
Limantour,  was  a  model  of  morality,  method,  science  and 
results  achieved.  The  revolution  declared  it  a  national 
scourge  and  destroyed  it,  only  to  replace  it  with  a  peculating, 
disordered,  miserable,  rapacious,  inept  substitute.  In  order 


332      WHOLE   TRUTH    ABOUT    MEXICO 

to  prove  the  truth  of  this  declaration  it  is  only  necessary, 
among  other  facts,  to  call  attention  to  one.  Every  bond  is- 
sued by  the  Diaz  Government,  of  any  kind  whatsoever,  was 
quoted,  if  it  were  redeemable  in  gold,  above  par  in  all  the 
great  markets  of  the  world ;  the  paper  money  issued  by  the 
de  facto  Government  is  worth  at  present  two  cents  gold  for 
one  hundred  cents  paper  (Havana  quotation,  March  22, 
1916).  These  data  unquestionably  reveal  that  the  de  facto 
Government  will  not  be  long  in  swelling  the  number  of  the 
victims;  its  pulse  can  no  longer  be  felt  even  with  the  stetho- 
scope. 

In   a  few  words  I   shall  present  the  financial  status  of 
Mexico : 

Annual  Expenditures 

For  the  interest  and  payment  of  the  recognized 
consolidated  debt  and  the  probable  floating 
debt  up  to  date  $45,000,000  gold 

Bureaucratic  salaries  40,000,000     ' 

Estimate  for  army  expenses  at  the  rate  of  $0.50 
gold  per  head,  further  estimate  for  chiefs, 
officers,  equipment,  not  counting  the  graft 
necessary  for  the  maintenance  of  the  de  facto 
Government  54,000,000  " 

Indispensably  need  to  reconstruct  and  main- 
tain railroads  10,000,000  " 


Total    $149,000,000  gold 

I  do  not  believe  that  the  present  Federal  receipts  aggre- 
gate $30,000,000,  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  the  de  facto 
Government  counts  as  the  chief  source  of  revenue  the  whole- 
sale robbery  of  the  Yucatecan  planters,  who  are  obliged  to 
deliver,  under  pain  of  confiscation  and  destruction  of  their 
maguey  fields,  one-half  of  the  integral  value  of  their  produc- 
tion. The  commission  to  regulate  the  price  of  henequen  has 
been  converted  into  the  commission  to  continue  the  spolia- 
tion of  the  Yucatecan  planters,  who  are  the  producers  of  the 


THE    MAGNITUDE    OF   THE    DISASTER       333 

valuable  fiber.  We  see,  then,  that  the  basis  of  the  Carran- 
cista  finances,  true  to  the  principle  of  the  glorious  revolu- 
tion, is  nothing  but  barefaced  graft.  With  regard  to  the 
state  finances,  a  complete  state  of  bankruptcy  exists  in  all. 
Each  governor  has  faculties  to  dispose  of  all  the  state  rev- 
enues as  he  may  see  fit,  for  the  public  good  or  for  that  of  his 
own  private  purse.  Needless  to  say,  the  good  of  the  private 
purse  predominates. 

During  the  dictatorship,  even  when  one-third  of  the  gov- 
ernors were  dishonest,  the  dictator  never  permitted  a  state 
of  public  bankruptcy  to  exist,  and,  consequently,  every  one 
marched  in  good  order,  paying  employees  and  meeting  all  his 
obligations.  Some  of  the  states,  notably  Yucatan,  Guana- 
juato, Vera  Cruz,  Oaxaca,  Chihuahua,  Queretaro  and 
Nuevo  Leon,  had  considerable  reserve  funds.  To-day  every- 
thing has  disappeared ;  a  universal  state  of  total  bankruptcy 
exists,  which  will  not  be  remedied  for  many  years.  Mean- 
while, the  bureaucracies  imbibe  miasmic  poisons,  live  upon 
typhus,  and,  bereft  of  everything  but  their  just  indignation, 
have  nothing  to  look  forward  to  but  greater  sufferings  until 
they  reach  the  final,  fatal  denouement. 


T 


CHAPTER  II 
THE  COLLAPSE  OF  CARRANCISM 

MACHIAVELLI    AND    CARRANZA 

HE   author  of    The  Prince  has  given   simple,   exact 


hand"  administration  in  countries  where  it  is  needed. 
Machiavelli  separates  the  people  into  two  classes:  First,  the 
vast,  peaceful,  servile  class  which  has  the  power  to  revolt, 
because  servility  does  not  preclude  the  right  possessed  by 
every  being  to  defend  himself  when  the  need  arises;  second, 
the  politicians,  engrossed  in  their  task  of  obtaining  control 
of  the  supreme  power  so  as  to  mercilessly  exploit  the  people. 

The  generator  of  public  opinion  is  the  people,  even  when 
it  is  a  servile  people;  and  public  opinion  is  always  sovereign 
even  when  its  influence  produces  a  different  result  from 
that  which  emanates  from  a  free  people.  Public  opinion 
finally  ends  by  terrorizing  tyrants,  spreading  panic  among 
their  supporters,  bringing  about  their  defection,  and  induc- 
ing them  to  take  vengeance  against  the  man  they  have  up- 
held. The  "iron  hand"  should  guard  above  all  against 
arousing  the  odium  of  public  opinion  which,  after  the  coup 
de  main,  is  the  favorite  political  weapon  for  overthrowing 
dictators. 

The  "iron  hand,"  in  order  to  win  and  keep  the  good  opin- 
•ion  of  the  masses,  who  justly  demand  that  they  be  governed 
in  conformity  with  the  state  of  civilization  they  possess, 
should  protect  them  against  the  oppression  of  malefactors; 
should  respect  civil  rights,  at  least  in  that  proportion  which 
the  people  have  heretofore  enjoyed  in  conformity  with  their 

334 


THE   COLLAPSE    OF    CARRANCISM       335 

traditions;  should  strive  to  supply  the  people  with  an  easy 
means  of  earning  a  livelihood,  which  can  best  be  done 
by  furthering  the  economic  progress  of  the  country,  and, 
finally,  should  establish  a  sound  financial  administration  and 
see  that  at  least  tolerable  justice  be  meted  out  by  the  courts, 
especially  to  the  lower  classes.  This  is  all  that  is  necessary 
to  insure  for  a  dictator  their  adhesion,  which  is  the  best  de- 
fense against  sudden  coups.  In  fact,  if  we  go  back  to  the 
Roman  Empire,  wrhich  existed  for  three  hundred  years  and 
which  employed  regicide  and  militarism  as  the  means  of 
eliminating  tyrants,  we  shall  find  that  seven  emperors, 
Augustus,  Tiberius,  Adrian,  Trajan,  Antoninus,  Marcus 
Aurelius  and  Pertinax — the  latter  the  only  exception  to  the 
rule  in  point  of  length  or  reign — collectively  held  the  power 
for  more  than  half  of  the  three  hundred  years  of  the 
empire's  existence.  These  seven  emperors  merited  the  sup- 
port of  public  opinion,  whereas  the  other  thirty-eight  were 
put  out  of  the  way  by  force,  as  a  rule,  by  assassination. 

Let  us  see  how  Carrancism  stands  in  the  light  of  public 
opinion.  Instead  of  protecting  the  people  against  male- 
factors, it  has  given  the  latter  its  assured  protection  against 
any  resistance  the  people  might  offer.  The  people  were  dis- 
armed and  thus  made  the  helpless  victims  of  this  criminal 
band.  The  civil  rights  of  a  people  demand  respect  for  religion 
and  private  property;  the  inviolability  of  personal  liberty;  the 
sacredness  of  the  home ;  public  and  private  morals ;  the  free- 
dom to  work,  and  respect  for  the  nation's  good  name.  Car- 
rancism has  disregarded  all  these.  It  has  been  the  implac- 
able persecutor  of  the  Catholic  religion,  almost  exclusively 
the  religion  of  the  Mexican  people;  it  recognizes  outside  its 
own  ranks  no  private  property  rights,  either  among  the  rich 
or  among  the  poor;  it  violates  all  personal  liberty,  every 
one,  from  its  point  of  view,  being  the  slave  of  the  armed 
bandits  of  the  north ;  it  disregards  public  and  private  morals, 
all  women  being  the  prey  of  its  lust;  it  has  substituted 


336      WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT    MEXICO 

for  the  free  right  to  work,  the  "free  right"  to  be  a  Car- 
rancista  soldier;  it  has  dragged  the  name  of  Mexico  in  the 
mire,  until  to-day  the  foreign  nations  want  the  United  States 
to  intervene  by  force  of  arms,  and,  if  necessary,  wipe  Mexico 
as  a  nation  off  the  face  of  the  map.  During  the  latter  years 
of  the  Diaz  dictatorship,  Mexico  had  attained  a  high  place 
in  the  estimation  of  the  nations  of  the  world,  as  our  Cen- 
tennial Celebration  in  1910  proved;  Carrancism  has  re- 
duced it  to  its  present  plight. 

Instead  of  building  up  the  resources  of  the  country,  Car- 
rancism has  countenanced  the  wanton  destruction  of  prop- 
erty and  of  the  capital  that  made  it  possible  for  the  people 
to  provide  for  their  own  support  by  work.  Instead  of  estab- 
lishing a  sound  financial  administration  and  a  tolerable  ad- 
ministration of  justice,  it  has  based  its  finances  upon  theft, 
as,  for  example,  the  coercing  of  the  henequen  planters  in 
Yucatan  and  the  cotton  planters  in  Torreon,  the  stealing  of 
cattle  on  the  frontier,  and  the  spoliation  of  everything  else 
worth  taking  in  other  parts  of  the  Republic.  At  the  pres- 
ent time  in  every  newspaper  article,  pamphlet,  book,  or  ad- 
dress relative  to  Mexico  we  find  the  truth — that  is,  that 
the  practical  principles  of  the  Mexican  revolution,  implac- 
ably carried  out,  have  been  vengeance  and  theft. 

As  humanity  progressed  the  "iron  hand"  had  to  progress 
also,  and  the  methods  that  held  good  in  Machiavelli's  time 
do  not  hold  good  now.  In  Latin-America  it  has  become  a 
fixed  principle  that  every  dictatorship,  however  strict,  should 
respect  the  representative  democratic  form,  and  this  prin- 
ciple has  given  rise  to  certain  passive  political  rights.  Dur- 
ing the  strictest  Caesarian  epoch  of  General  Diaz's  dictator- 
ship all  wrere  at  liberty  to  declare  themselves  anti-Porfiristas, 
and  no  one  was  molested  so  long  as  his  attitude  did  not  take 
the  form  of  an  actual  rebellious  and  seditious  newspaper 
campaign.  The  most  notable  example  of  this  policy  is  that 
of  the  historian  and  politician,  Don  Fernando  Iglesias  Cal- 


THE    COLLAPSE    OF    CARRANCISM       337 

deron,  who  was  General  Diaz's  political  enemy  for  thirty- 
three  years.  During  that  time  he  wrote  in  a  serious  and 
dignified  vein  everything  that  he  wished,  and  was  never  in 
any  way  punished  or  persecuted.  Senor  Iglesias  Calderon 
exercised  active  political  rights,  and  those  who  exercised 
passive  rights,  manifesting  simply  dissatisfaction,  were  never 
molested.  The  Diaz  dictatorship  never  punished  or  perse- 
cuted any  writer  who  criticized  the  Administration  in  its 
administrative,  economic,  legal  or  even  political  aspect. 
Senor  Luis  Cabrera,  the  most  implacable  of  the  Carrancistas, 
enjoyed  this  liberty  under  the  dictatorship.  In  Mexico  to- 
day neither  the  Mexican  nor  the  foreigner  is  allowed  the 
passive  political  right  of  not  being  an  adherent  of  Carran- 
cism.  He  is  obliged  under  pain  of  arrest,  confiscation  of 
property  and  even  death  to  be  a  Carrancista.  Not  to  be 
one  is  equivalent  to  being  the  revolution's  enemy,  and  that 
revolution  does  not  tolerate  enemies  but  aims  to  foment  the 
greatest  amount  of  hatred  against  them  and  even  to  ex- 
terminate them. 

The  Carrancista  Government  is  a  government  of  terror 
of  the  most  repugnant  type  and  of  the  species  most  abhorrent 
to  twentieth-century  civilization.  There  is  nothing  new  or 
unusual  in  this  assertion.  All  humanity  bears  witness  to  it. 

But  under  no  consideration  is  the  revolution  to  be  de- 
famed. It  is  wise,  it  is  reflective,  it  is  just!  The  Mexican 
people  declared  tyrants  the  sixty- four  viceroys  sent  by  Spain ! 
In  reality  not  one  of  them  merited  the  title,  and  most  of 
them  were  distinguished  for  their  honesty  and  kindness.  The 
Mexican  people  declared  tyrants  the  loyal  and  energetic 
Victoria,  the  weak  and  likable  Guerrero,  the  honest  Busta- 
mante,  the  just  Arista,  the  reasonable  and  moderate  Juarez, 
the  exact  Lerdo  de  Tejada,  and  General  Diaz,  who,  al- 
though a  despot,  deserved  that  the  Mexican  people  should 
accept  my  estimate  of  his  administration:  "A  government 
with  a  minimum  of  terror  and  a  maximum  of  kindness." 


338      WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT    MEXICO 

Nevertheless,  on  May  24,  1911,  when  he  took  refuge  in  his 
home  surrounded  by  some  of  the  members  of  his  own  family, 
and  one  or  two  friends,  who  endeavored  to  relieve  his  moral 
and  physical  suffering,  although  the  weight  of  his  eighty 
years  pressed  heavily  upon  him,  although  the  heart  that 
throbbed  in  his  weather-beaten  breast  was  the  same  that  had 
made  him  a  hero  in  a  war  that  stemmed  a  foreign  invasion, 
although  his  country  was  indebted  to  him .  for  more  bless- 
ings than  curses,  the  filthy,  political  rabble  placed  itself  at 
the  head  of  a  ferocious  mob,  seeking  the  blood  of  an  old 
man  whom  history,  notwithstanding  his  faults,  will  absolve. 
But  the  revolution  is  wise  and  just;  we  must  bend  the 
knee  and  submit  to  its  decrees!  As  the  people  have  ruth- 
lessly attacked  eminent  men,  characterizing  them  as  tyrants 
and  tearing  them  to  pieces  without  mercy,  justice  demands 
that  these  people  should  get  a  lesson,  and  be  made  to  under- 
stand what  real  tyranny  is.  Diaz  was  overthrown.  Ma- 
dero,  kind  and  honorable,  was  also  declared  a  tyrant. 
Huerta  appeared,  like  a  somber  Caesar  of  Rome's  decadent 
days.  He  was  discarded  and  the  revolution  produced  Car- 
ranza,  a  thousand  times  more  tyrannical  than  Huerta. 
Carranza  failing  to  satisfy  the  people,  the  revolution — the 
supreme  teacher — will  impose  Obregon,  who,  in  turn,  will 
be  harsher  than  Carranza.  The  revolution  had  destined  the 
nation  for  the  Caesarism  of  Villa,  and  it  was  what  the  in- 
surgent class  deserved.  The  people  are  beginning  now  to 
know  what  real  tyranny  is,  and  if  they  survive  they  will 
know  the  measure  of  deference,  respect,  and  kindness  that 
should  be  shown  to  really  eminent  rulers.  There  should 
be  changes  in  the  administration,  it  is  true,  because  power 
enervates,  but  it  should  not  be  done  with  infamy  and  dis- 
honor. A  patriot  should  be  removed  without  sacrificing 
patriotism.  A  government  based  upon  terror  is  a  weak 
government,  because,  sooner  or  later,  it  ends  by  terrorizing 
even  the  tyrant  and  his  paid  assassins.  It  is  evident  that 


THE    COLLAPSE    OF   CARRANCISM       339 

this  terror  has  already  taken  possession  of  Senor  Venustiano 
Carranza.  He  cannot  remain  long  in  one  place;  he  travels 
not  for  amusement,  but  to  flee  from  himself;  he  is  beginning 
to  be  obsessed  with  the  thought  of  himself.  The  blood  that 
has  been  spilt  in  his  name  makes  him  believe  that  his  own 
will  soon  be  called  for;  the  tears  of  that  people  whom  he 
offered  to  make  happy  may  be  converted  from  one  moment 
to  another  into  bullets  to  annihilate  him;  the  ruins  of  his 
country  curse  him  as  they  crumble  to  pieces,  and  even  the 
echo  of  misfortune  and  pain  has  for  him  the  significance  of 
the  fatal  summons.  His  terrors  have  been  further  increased 
by  the  ominous  glances  of  fifteen  million  Mexicans  which 
say  to  him:  "That  is  right!  Continue  also  to  be  a  traitor 
to  your  country!" 

Senor  Carranza's  supremacy  over  his  rivals  in  the  pres- 
ent chaos  and  anarchy  that  reigns  in  Mexico  can  be  easily 
explained.  In  Mexico  politics  are  anti-patriotic,  being  sim- 
ply the  ebullition  of  personalism.  Zapata  is  not  a  likely 
subject  for  the  development  of  personalism.  He  has  no 
wealth  with  which  to  buy  friends  and  partisans  in  propor- 
tion with  what  he  can  distribute.  He  is  the  real  apostle. 
He  despoils  the  rich  for  the  benefit  of  the  poor.  He  con- 
fiscates plantations,  not  to  add  to  his  own  private  property, 
but  to  divide  and  distribute  them  among  the  poor  farmers, 
fulfilling  the  promises  he  has  given.  His  party  has  no  sine- 
cures to  offer.  It  will  not  tolerate  the  violation  of  the  civil 
rights  of  the  people.  There  is  morality,  justice,  order, 
rights  to  be  respected  and  duties  to  be  fulfilled.  The  In- 
dian follower  of  Zapata  is  not  his  slave,  as  Senor  Palavicini 
is  Carranza's,  and  as  Senor  Rafael  Zubaran  will  be  Obre- 
gon's,  when  the  latter  believes  the  opportune  moment  has 
come  to  betray  his  chief.  Zapatism  being  what  it  is,  a  truly 
barbaric,  Aztec  organization,  cannot  attract  the  rotten  poli- 
ticians of  the  intellectual  proletariat  or  the  Constitutionalist 
banditti. 


340      WHOLE    TRUTH    ABOUT    MEXICO 

Following  the  lead  of  the  French  Revolution,  under  the 
protection  of  the  Villistas  and  the  Zapatistas,  a  rare  political 
entity — the  Sovereign  National  Convention — was  formed. 
In  a  country  where  there  is  no  strength  outside  of  the  policy 
governed  by  personalism,  this  was  destined  to  fail  ignomini- 
ously  and,  as  a  conventional  government  is  the  most  imper- 
sonal of  all  governments,  it  could  hope  to  have  but  few 
partisans,  and  provisional  ones  at  that. 

If  one  of  the  First  Chief's  friends  wins  a  battle,  he  gives 
him  one,  two,  three  or  more  million  pesos  (paper),  a  fine 
country  house,  valued  at  no  less  than  one  million  dollars 
gold;  ten  or  twelve  town  residences  in  the  most  fashionable 
quarter,  and  one  hundred  women,  chosen  from  among  the 
most  beautiful  and  attractive  of  the  Republic.  A  conven- 
tion expresses  its  appreciation  by  a  vote  of  thanks,  a  medal, 
a  diploma,  or  at  most  it  may  decree  that  the  victor's  name 
be  inscribed  in  letters  of  gold  upon  the  tablet  in  the  conven- 
tion hall.  The  supreme  reward  is  to  declare  the  hero  de- 
serving of  his  country's  consideration,  leaving  him,  however, 
to  die  of  hunger  or  to  live  upon  the  alms  of  the  friends  who 
flee  from  him  when  the  opposing  party  gets  into  power  and 
brands  him  a  traitor,  meriting  the  opprobrium  of  humanity. 
A  flatterer  may  hang  around  a  convention  for  twenty  years 
without  even  getting  a  letter-carrier's  job  out  of  it.  Imper- 
sonal governments  are  not  susceptible  to  the  blandishments 
that  turn  the  heads  of  personal  rulers. 

On  the  other  hand,  conventions,  like  all  sovereign  assem- 
blages, are  merciless  in  decreeing  death  penalties,  confisca- 
tion of  property,  and  the  most  atrocious  vengeance  against 
the  superior  men  of  the  nation,  because,  as  all  assemblages 
are  formed  from  the  mediocre  political  element,  the  assem- 
bly's enemies  are  the  eminent  men  of  the  nation  and,  by  a 
natural  inference,  necessarily  the  country's  enemies  as  well. 

Personalism  does  not  enter  much  into  Villa's  make-up, 
because  it  is  debatable  whether  or  not  he  is  a  person.  If 


THE    COLLAPSE    OF    CARRANCISM       341 

he  is,  he  is  not  one  whose  friendship  can  be  counted  upon. 
Studying  Villa's  conduct,  it  is  evident  that  not  one  of  the 
intellectuals  who  surrounded  him  ever  had  any  great  in- 
fluence over  him.  Villa's  favorites  were  always  the  most 
terrible  of  the  bandits:  Fierro,  Rodriquez,  Urbina  and 
Banda.  In  Villa's  circle  no  one  was  sure  of  his  life  because 
not  only  the  chief  himself,  but  any  of  his  favorites,  had  the 
right  personally  to  take  the  life  of  any  one  who  displeased 
him,  no  matter  how  insignificant  the  cause  might  be.  Villa 
gave  plantations,  houses,  jewelry,  and  money,  but  later  on 
he  would  take  them  back  to  bestow  them  upon  some  new 
favorite.  There  is  not  a  single  one  of  Villa's  favorites  who 
really  became  rich  and  retained  for  any  length  of  time  a  re- 
spected and  remunerative  position.  Any  tale  carried  by  a 
busybody — and  scandal  mongers  abound  in  these  political 
coteries — was  enough  to  cost  the  defenseless  victim  his  head. 

Senor  Carranza,  on  the  contrary,  is  an  ideal  exponent  of 
personalism.  He  is  constant  to  his  friends,  slow  to  give 
credence  to  talebearers,  generous  almost  past  belief  in  recom- 
pensing services,  and  above  all  in  rewarding  adulation.  He 
pays  his  debts  of  gratitude  at  a  high  rate  of  interest,  and 
is  constant  toward  the  faithful.  In  a  word,  and  to  use  a 
Mexican  expression,  Carranza  is  what  the  personal  politicians 
call  "un  a?niffo  pare  jo"  (a  friend  on  the  level) ;  and  for 
politicians  with  great  and  unbridled  ambition  he  possesses 
the  advantage  of  being  as  manageable  as  an  organ-grinder's 
monkey. 

The  amount  expended  by  Senor  Carranza  upon  his  friends 
and  partisans  has  been  simply  enormous.  In  seventeen 
months,  deducting  only  what  has  been  spent  upon  armament 
and  munitions,  and  the  small  amount  distributed  among  the 
lower  bureaucracy,  he  has  given  to  his  friends  more  than 
700,000,000  pesos  paper,  produced  by  his  unique  little 
money-making  machine,  besides  $20,000,000  gold,  stolen 
from  the  Yucatecan  planters,  $5,000,000  gold  from  the  cot- 


342      WHOLE   TRUTH    ABOUT    MEXICO 

ton  growers,  and  $3,000,000  gold,  from  the  oil  companies. 
Great  herds  of  cattle,  enormous  quantities  of  hides,  cof- 
fee and  every  kind  of  merchandise,  houses  and  plantations, 
valued  at  not  less  than  300,000,000  pesos,  and  all  the  state 
and  municipal  revenues,  have  also  been  distributed  among 
them,  his  friends  being  constituted  absolute  owners  of  the 
lives,  honor  and  revenues  of  the  people.  I  do  not  believe 
that  among  modern  rulers,  even  including  those  of  the  lux- 
urious oriental  nations,  there  ever  has  been  a  sultan,  kalif, 
emperor,  great  lama,  great  chief  or  great  Latin-American 
liberator  who  has  given  more  wealth  to  his  partisans 
than  Senor  Venustiano  Carranza  has  distributed  among  his 
friends,  and  who  at  the  same  time  has  permitted  them  to 
commit  as  great  a  number  of  crimes  and  acts  worthy  only  of 
irrational  brutes. 

It  is  quite  evident  that  Senor  Carranza  has  not  assimi- 
lated the  dictatorial  method.  Terror  and  corruption,  as  is 
well  known,  are  the  infallible  and  indispensable  arms  of  all 
Caesarian  governments.  But  the  indispensable  condition  for 
Caesarism  is  a  Caesar,  and  in  the  very  nature  of  things  he 
must  be  supreme.  No  Caesar  or  dictator,  worthy  of  the 
name,  would  consent  to  be  the  lap-dog  of  his  favorites.  In 
modern  times  Cromwell  and  Napoleon  I  were  generous  pro- 
tectors of  their  partisans,  but  never  consented  to  be  bossed 
by  them.  Juarez  and  Diaz  never  had  favorites  and  were 
always  their  own  masters.  The  chief  who  permits  himself 
to  be  bossed  can  never  govern,  and  serves  only  as  the  instru- 
ment which  makes  the  public  service  the  mistress  of  the 
military,  as  well  as  of  the  frock-coated  soldiery. 

Senor  Carranza  has  not  understood  that  terror  is  a  means 
applied  to  politicians  by  governments  when  corruption  has 
failed  to  subjugate  them,  or  when  they  put  an  unheard-of 
price  upon  their  submission.  He  has  applied  terror  not  to 
the  politicians  of  his  party,  but  to  the  peaceful,  honest,  hard- 
working people,  who  would  be  satisfied  with  a  few  civil 


THE    COLLAPSE    OF   CARRANCISM       343 

rights  which  would  allow  them  to  live  as  frugally  or  mis- 
erably as  they  have  lived  for  centuries  past. 

The  generosity  that  has  created  for  Don  Venustiano  Car- 
ranza  such  a  powerful  party  of  personal  adherents  will  lead 
ultimately  to  disorder,  and  the  collapse  will  precipitate  Senor 
Carranza  and  his  partisans  into  the  abyss;  that  is,  if  the 
latter  have  not  already  turned  upon  him  and  betrayed  him 
in  conformity  with  the  code  of  honor  binding  politicians  in 
general,  and  those  of  Latin-America  in  particular. 

Without  the  abundant  issue  of  paper  money  the  revolu- 
tion would  not  have  attracted  to  itself  this  immense  follow- 
ing. However,  the  issue  of  such  paper  money  is  not  an 
inexhaustible  resource.  When  those  who  employ  it  do  not 
know  how  to  manage  it  and  to  put  on  the  brakes  in  time, 
a  complete  state  of  bankruptcy  ensues,  absolutely  destruc- 
tive of  political  and  social  order,  reacting  principally  upon 
the  authors  of  the  catastrophe.  The  paper  money  has  gone 
down  as  low  as  two  cents  gold  for  every  one  hundred  cents 
paper  (March  25,  1916).  One  short  step  more  and  Car- 
rancism  will  plunge  into  the  dark,  fathomless  abyss,  as  a 
torpedoed  ocean  liner  heaves  and  disappears  beneath  the 
waves. 

As  Senor  Carranza  has  not  been  a  disciplinarian,  but  a 
coddler  of  bandits,  in  order  to  secure  at  least  their  nominal 
recognition  of  him  as  their  First  Chief,  with  the  waning  of 
his  material  prosperity — the  source  of  his  power — he  will 
have  to  flee  from  his  own  coterie  in  order  to  escape  being 
put  to  death,  according  to  the  rules  of  the  Barbary  pirates: 
"When  the  captain  is  of  no  further  use,  he  is  to  be  hung 
to  the  top  of  the  main  mast." 


A   COUNTRY   HONEYCOMBED   BY  THEFT 

Taking  into  consideration  the  pharisaical  nature  of  the 
de  facto  Government,   no   possible  rational  motive  can   be 


344      WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT    MEXICO 

found  for  supposing  that  it  can  survive  more  than  six  months 
longer. 

Putting  aside  the  great  events  that  bear  some  relation  to 
historical  precedents,  and  coming  down  to  the  level  of  home 
politics,  the  conviction  of  the  impossibility  of  the  perma- 
nancy  of  the  Carranza  dictatorship  is  forcibly  driven  home. 

At  present  there  are  two  great  political  parties  in  Mexico, 
irreconcilable  and  not  to  be  dominated,  so  far  as  the  fierce 
conflict  of  cupidity  and  baseness  is  concerned :  first,  those  who 
have  stolen  much  and  who  want  to  steal  more ;  second,  those 
who  have  not  had  the  opportunity  to  steal  and  are  fairly 
rabid  to  join  those  sordid  ranks.  The  latter  embraces  also 
those  who  have  only  been  able  to  steal  moderately,  or  those 
who,  having  stolen  much,  have  squandered  the  fruits  of 
their  spoliation.  The  words  of  the  French  publicist,  whom 
I  have  previously  quoted,  are  realized  in  Mexico  now  as 
never  before:  "The  political  problem  in  Latin- America  is 
fundamentally  a  problem  of  public  thieving."  The  Mexican 
political  problem  is  fundamentally,  formally,  absolutely,  rel- 
atively, in  its  length,  breadth  and  depth,  in  every  respect  in 
fact,  a  problem  of  public  thieving,  because  the  revolution  has 
put  the  stamp  of  its  approval  upon  it,  making  both  public 
and  private  theft  a  respected,  sacred,  political  and  patriotic 
proceeding.  In  Mexico  to  steal  is  to  live;  not  to  steal  is  to 
fall  into  the  pit  dug  for  cowards  and  honest  men,  and  the 
hope  of  stealing  is  implanted  as  deeply  in  the  soul  of  the 
revolutionist  as  the  hope  of  heaven  in  the  Christian's  soul. 

The  dictatorship  of  Senor  Carranza  seems  to  count  upon 
but  few  propitious  circumstances.  Napoleon  I  defined 
Caesarism  as  "the  struggle  of  the  ambition  of  one  against  the 
ambition  of  all."  The  "ambition  of  all"  has  passed  and  is 
passing  through  a  tremendous  crisis  in  Mexico.  During  the 
Diaz  dictatorship  the  country's  problem  of  public  thieving 
was,  on  the  whole,  satisfactorily  solved  in  favor  of  the  na- 
tion. There  was  corruption  but,  as  I  have  proved,  it  was  less 


THE    COLLAPSE    OF    CARRANCISM       345 

in  Mexico  than  in  any  other  Latin-American  country,  the 
Diaz  administration  being  a  model  in  this  respect. 

The  Reyista  press  aroused  the  envy  of  the  middle  class, 
especially  that  of  the  educated  proletariat,  and  the  general, 
accepted  concept  of  General  Diaz's  Government  was  that 
it  was  a  band  of  thieves,  lead  by  Limantour.  Limantour 
was  never  a  thief,  and  many  persons,  Mexicans  as  well  as 
foreigners,  are  now  convinced  that  this  is  true-.  He  ener- 
getically fought  and  prevented  almost  all  the  dishonest 
schemes  projected  by  "patriots";  he  waged  war  unto  death 
against  the  most  dexterous  and  obstinate  thieves;  he  ren- 
dered incalculable  services  to  his  country;  and,  nevertheless, 
his  large  estates  in  Mexico  have  been  confiscated.  A  plot 
was  on  foot  to  assassinate  him  when  Madero  triumphed,  and, 
even  to-day,  if  he  were  captured  he  would  be  executed  at 
once,  the  only  grievance  against  him  being  that  he  did  not 
permit  those  to  steal  who  to-day  are  thirsting  for  gold  and 
for  vengeance  against  those  who  dared  to  hold  back  this 
army  of  Constitutionalist  rapacity. 

But  the  revolution  is  great  and  noble  and  we  must  once 
more  bend  the  knee  and  kiss  its  hand,  that  blood-stained  hand 
that  is  licked  by  a  miserable  and  starving  nation !  The  revolu- 
tion has  avenged  Limantour,  the  dictator,  his  administration. 
It  was  the  well-paid,  well-fed,  lazy  bureaucratic  middle  class, 
assured  of  a  roseate  future  in  view  of  the  abundant  vintage 
to  be  pressed  from  the  juicy  budget,  that  was  most  indignant 
against  the  imaginary  thieves.  The  bureaucrat  of  those  days 
was  the  type  of  the  lotus  eater,  inviolable  in  his  blissful 
egotism.  The  bureaucrat  of  to-day  is  an  emaciated,  mangy 
spectator  of  universal  spoliation,  of  veritable  public  and 
private  theft,  of  that  theft  which  swallows  bureaucratic  sal- 
aries and  which  hourly  submerges  the  bureaucracy  more  and 
more  in  the  terror  of  abject  want,  and  brings  it  nearer  to 
death  by  starvation.  And  to  think  that  in  the  decadent  days 
of  the  dictatorship,  General  Diaz  should  have  countenanced 


346      WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT    MEXICO 

the  protests,  the  hypocritical  judgments,  the  paroxisms  of 
outraged  virtue,  hysterical  envy  and  wounded  patriotism,  and 
all  that  program  of  vilification  which  was  carried  on  against 
the  Cientificos!  To-day  theft  is  the  right  of  the  conqueror, 
the  recompense  of  his  crimes,  the  only  constitutional  law, 
and  the  envious,  the  honorable,  the  poor,  the  rich  and  above 
all  the  cowards,  must  do  homage  to  it  under  pain  of  death. 
To-day  mock  virtue  does  not  parade,  campaigns  of  vilifica- 
tion are  not  inaugurated,  nor  do  the  bells  of  public  opinion 
peal  forth  denunciations  of  the  dishonest  Cientificos.  To-day 
one  must  die  a  cowardly  death,  overcome  by  the  anaesthesia 
of  profound  abjection,  or  gagged  by  the  filthy  hands  of  ban- 
dits. There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  revolution  has  been 
justice-dealing.  Against  the  immense  imaginary  theft  of  the 
dictatorship,  we  have  the  barefaced,  noisy,  feverish,  brutal, 
prehistoric  robbery  of  Constitutionalism.  The  calumniators 
of  the  Porfirian  Administration  are  satisfied;  the  revolution 
has  been  an  excellent  teacher.  Let  us  ponder  its  lessons ! 

During  the  Porfirian  regime  there  was  only  one  key  to 
the  paradise  of  political  theft,  and  that  was  the  consumma- 
tion of  dirty  business  transactions  by  means  of  the  contract 
system,  the  system  that  in  Cuba  is  colloquially  called  fflos 
chivos"  (the  goats).  Theft  was  possible  only  by  means  of 
extortion.  To-day  peculation  is  the  bloom  to  be  plucked 
from  the  administration,  without  prejudicing  the  normal  de- 
velopment of  the  contract  system.  Formerly  theft  had  pene- 
trated into  the  judiciary  by  means  of  the  coercion  of  higher 
authority.  To-day  coercion  is  not  needed  to  convert  the 
courts  into  robbing  machines.  In  all  civil  or  penal  judg- 
ments the  judge  asks  which  of  the  contending  parties  is  a 
Cientifico ;  that  is,  which  has  the  greatest  amount  of  portable 
wealth  and,  therefore,  the  greater  responsibility  as  the  people's 
enemy.  Once  this  important  legal  point  has  been  settled,  the 
Cientifico  is  immediately  condemned.  Such  is  the  Roque 
Estrada  code.  To-day  all  private  property  is  under  the  law 


THE    COLLAPSE    OF   CARRANCISM       347 

of  confiscation  or  supervision.  Everything  that  has  any  eco- 
nomic, moral  or  intellectual  value  is  listed  as  subject  to  con- 
fiscation or  destruction.  This  admirable  anarchistic  ma- 
chine, consumer  of  the  last  cent,  the  last  honest  man,  the 
last  trace  of  social  life,  is  called  pre-Constitutionalism,  and 
was,  it  seems,  invented  by  Senor  Luis  Cabrera. 

The  position  of  a  dictator  in  the  face  of  this  pre-Constitu- 
tionalist  machine  can  now  be  understood.  This  patriotic  in- 
vention has  increased  ambition  one  hundredfold.  Every 
bandit  leader,  with  his  following  of  frock-coated  bandits, 
knows  that  if  he  triumphs  he  will  enjoy  a  delicious  period 
of  pre-Constitutionalism  in  which  he  and  his  friends  can 
help  themselves  to  everything  there  is  to  take,  assassinate  all 
their  personal  enemies,  and  even  their  troublesome  friends; 
and,  happiness  once  secured,  the  era  of  Constitutionalism  will 
dawn  to  consolidate  all  the  rapine  of  pre-Constitutionalism 
and  absolve  from  its  responsibilities.  Mexican  politics  have 
been  renewed,  reformed,  intensified,  strictly  adapted  to  a 
chronic  and  mortal  state  of  anarchy,  and  all  this  marvellous 
transformation  is  due  to  the  invention  of  pre-Constitutional- 
ism! 

ANOTHER   GRAVE    OBSTACLE    CONFRONTING   THE    CARRANZA 
DICTATORSHIP 

The  intrepid  and  honorable  Porfirista  general,  Senor  Do- 
nato  Guerra,  with  the  unreserved  frankness  of  a  soldier,  de- 
clared in  September,  1872,  when  Sebastian  Lerdo  de  Tejada, 
a  civilian,  was  raised  to  the  presidency  by  process  of  law,  that 
the  army  would  never  tolerate  as  president  of  Mexico  any 
one  but  a  military  man,  because  the  fatherland  being  heroic 
only  a  hero  could  govern  it.  Consequently,  whether  they 
liked  it  or  not,  the  Mexican  people  would  have  to  be  ruled 
by  the  patriotic  laws  of  heroism.  This  doctrine  agrees  with 
that  of  the  Colombian  military  president,  who  said:  "These 


348      WHOLE    TRUTH    ABOUT    MEXICO 

countries  (the  Latin-American  nations)  belong  to  the 
strong." 

From  1821  to  1914  there  have  been  only  three  Constitu- 
tionalist civilian  presidents  in  Mexico:  Benito  Juarez,  Se- 
bastian Lerdo  de  Tejada  and  Francisco  I.  Madero.  All 
three  had  the  army  for  their  deadly  enemy.  Juarez  died  be- 
fore his  overthrow  was  accomplished,  but  the  downfall  of 
both  Lerdo  de  Tejada  and  Madero  was  brought  about  by 
the  army.  Bearing  this  national  tradition  in  mind,  it  seems 
almost  impossible  that  Senor  Venustiano  Carranza,  who  is 
not  a  military  man,  can  hold  for  long  the  loyalty  of  the 
Constitutionalist  army;  all  the  more  as  this  army  thinks  it- 
self more  military  than  the  German  army,  and,  like  the 
latter,  does  not  understand  that  it  could  have  a  civilian  for 
a  Kaiser.  The  Constitutionalist  army  resents  not  only  that 
a  civilian  should  be  president  of  the  Republic,  but  that  he 
should  presume  to  be  anything  more  than  a  dragoon's  boot- 
black or  a  mule  in  the  artillery  train.  The  Constitutionalist 
revolution  was  launched  especially  against  the  extreme  mil- 
itarism represented  by  General  Victoriano  Huerta,  but,  as 
in  this  redemptory  revolution  all  the  reforms  conceived  by  the 
revolutionists  have  been  fiascos,  it  turns  out  that  the  redemp- 
tion from  militarism  has  produced  a  reactionary  militarism 
bordering  upon  that  of  Attila's  time.  Under  these  condi- 
tions the  dictatorship  of  a  civilian  of  Senor  Carranza's  stamp 
is  just  as  logical  as  the  successful  operation  of  an  ice  plant  i» 
the  sun. 

Senor  Carranza  bears  the  title  of  General  decreed  by  him- 
self and  even  by  the  revolutionary  formulary,  but  neither 
military  men  nor  civilians,  so  far  as  that  is  concerned,  con- 
sider him  a  military  man.  The  best  proof  of  this  assertion, 
which  implies  such  grave  consequences,  is  that  Senor  Car- 
ranza's most  ardent  admirers,  who  are  trying  by  every  pos- 
sible means  to  heighten  his  prestige,  never  speak  of  him  as 
a  great  military  hero.  Quoting  from  his  panegyrists  we  find 


THE    COLLAPSE    OF    CARRANCISM       349 

the  following:  ."He  is  the  man  of  the  revolution"  (Pala- 
vicini)  ;  "The  living  symbol  of  the  aspirations  of  the  down- 
trodden masses"  (R.  Pesqueira)  ;  "The  prototype  of  the  re- 
formers"; "The  leading  man  of  Mexico"  (J.  N.  Macias)  ; 
"The  divine  breath  of  the  fatherland"  (P.  Martinez)  ; 
"The  genius  that  has  inspired  sacrifices  for  the  fatherland" 
(E.  Gomez  Caso)  ;  "He  is  cast  in  the  mould  of  immortality 
and  shed  a  molten  tear  upon  Madero's  grave"  (R.  Fernan- 
dez Giiell)  ;  "The  everlasting  idol  of  free  peoples"  (R. 
Rivera)  ;  "The  real  arbiter  of  our  future  destinies"  (Pedro 
Lamicq)  ;  "The  pure  fire  of  patriotic  souls";  "Universal 
heir  of  the  granite-like  soul  of  the  sublime  Juarez"  (C. 
Dominguez)  ;  "Great  prophet";  "Great  statesman  who  be- 
fore long  will  surprise  the  New  World";  "Patrician  soul"; 
"Luminous  talent,  and  above  all  he  is — The  Man!"  (Santos 
Chocano)  ;  "The  vindication  of  rebellion";  "The  brilliancy 
of  patriotism";  "The  diamond-like  purity  of  the  national 
ideals"  (M.  Fernandez  Cabrera). 

In  all  this  psalter  of  Carrancista  praises  we  do  not  find 
such  expressions  as  "the  flaming  sword,"  "the  thunderbolt  of 
war,"  "the  terror  of  the  furies,"  indicating  that  any  martial 
traits  are  included  in  the  concept  of  the  First  Chief.  Even 
supposing  that  Carranza  were  a  general  in  reality,  and  not 
one  simply  by  courtesy,  he  does  not  possess  the  personal  mag- 
netism indispensable  to  a  great  leader.  The  country  needs 
a  dictator  as  great  as  the  greatness  of  the  misfortune  that  is 
submerging  it,  and  it  is  indispensable  that  he  should  be  a 
hero  possessing  the  magnetic  qualities  of  a  Cromwell  or  a 
Napoleon  I — such  heroes,  in  short,  as  Mexico  herself  has 
produced:  Morelos,  Iturbide,  Santa  Anna,  Miramon,  Por- 
firio  Diaz,  and  Villa  among  his  bandit  followers.  Obregon 
has  not  as  yet  displayed  his  power  completely  to  dominate 
the  Constitutionalist  army,  or  even  the  whole  of  the  western 
branch,  but  he  is  the  only  military  man  at  this  time  who  has 


350      WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT   MEXICO 

enough  prestige  among  his  followers  to  attempt  the  pacifica- 
tion of  the  country  upon  a  somewhat  rational  basis. 

No  class,  especially  the  military,  can  stand  Senor  Car- 
ranza  as  dictator  or  as  president  of  the  Republic  because  he 
lacks  the  indispensable  qualities  for  a  Mexican  dictator. 
Every  one  in  Mexico  (except  the  bandits  who  are  profiting 
by  anarchy)  wants  peace;  but  not  the  peace  of  the  Asiatic 
slave  of  three  thousand  years  ago ;  not  the  Carrancista  peace, 
which  is  nothing  but  anarchy  whitewashed  into  a  de  facto 
Government,  much  less  the  peace  imposed  by  President  Wil- 
son. Carranza  is  simply  a  business  proposition,  and  a  fairly 
good  one  at  that,  so  long  as  the  financial  and  economic  con- 
ditions in  the  country  permit  of  the  co-existence  of  social  life 
with  the  disorder  and  pillage  raging  everywhere. 

OBREGON'S  COUP 

National  and  foreign  opinion  looks  for  the  Obregon  coup 
as  an  inevitable  outcome  in  the  evolution  of  the  present  an- 
archistic situation  in  Mexico.  This  can  be  predicted  with 
almost  mathematical  precision  from  the  precedents  of  uni- 
versal as  well  as  Mexican  history.  General  Guadalupe  Vic- 
toria, the  hero  of  the  War  of  Independence,  associated  with 
General  Santa  Anna,  revolted  against  the  Emperor  Iturbide 
and  won  the  supreme  power  by  means  of  a  military  coup. 
General  Miguel  Bravo,  also  a  hero  of  the  War  of  Independ- 
ence, revolted  against  President  Victoria  but  without  suc- 
cess, and  another  Independence  hero,  General  Vicente  Guer- 
rero, carried  his  revolt  against  Victoria  to  a  successful  ter- 
mination. General  Anastasio  Bustamante,  in  turn,  ousted 
General  Guerrero  from  the  presidential  chair  by  force. 
General  Santa  Anna,  the  "military  genius,"  by  means  of  a 
military  coup  overthrew  President  Bustamante  in  1832  and 
again  in  1841. 

Santa  Anna's  great  friend,  General  Mariano  Paredes  y 
Arrillaga,  in  his  capacity  of  "military  genius,"  betrayed  him 


THE    COLLAPSE    OF    CARRANCISM       351 

by  means  of  a  military  coup,  and  General  Gabriel  Valencia 
retaliated  by  overthrowing  Paredes  y  Arrillaga  to  reinstate 
Santa  Anna,  who  returned  from  exile  to  assume  the  power 
in  virtue  of  the  Guadalajara  coup  executed  in  his  favor. 
General  Ignacio  Comonfort,  the  "military  genius"  of  the 
Plan  de  Ayutla,  was  loyal  to  President  Juan  Alvarez,  but 
General  Manuel  Doblado,  Comonfort's  associate,  initiated 
the  revolt  of  San  Luis  Potosi,  and  President  Alvarez  pru- 
dently resigned  and  withdrew  to  his  estates  in  the  south. 

General  Felix  Zuluaga,  intimate  friend  of  Comonfort's, 
betrayed  him  through  the  Tacubaya  coup,  and  General 
Miguel  Miramon,  the  brilliant  "military  genius,"  turned 
against  Zuluaga  and  overthrew  him.  If  the  French  had 
not  appeared  in  1862,  General  Gonzalez  Ortega,  the  daz- 
/ling  "military  genius,"  would  have  started  a  revolt  against 
President  Benito  Juarez.  General  Porfirio  Diaz,  recognized 
a  "military  genius"  in  1869,  launched  his  Plan  de  la  Nona, 
and  would  unquestionably  have  overthrown  Juarez  if  the 
latter  had  not  been  called  to  his  final  accounting,  dying 
on  July  1 8,  1872.  As  the  "military  genius"  of  the  day, 
General  Porfirio  Diaz  was  able  to  carry  out  his  coup  against 
President  Sebastian  Lerdo  de  Tejada,  and  by  this  means 
reached  the  presidency  in  1876.  General  Bernardo  Reyes, 
converted  into  the  "military  genius"  of  the  day  by  the  power 
of  the  anti-Cientifico  press,  prepared  to  revolt  against  Gen- 
eral Diaz,  but  his  courage  failed  him  at  the  critical  moment 
and  he  fled,  leaving  the  apostle,  Francisco  Madero,  heir  to 
the  carefully  prepared  revolution.  Pascual  Orozco's  flam- 
ing sword,  or  to  be  more  exact,  flaming  rifle,  won  the  victory 
for  Madero,  thereby  earning  the  title  of  "military  genius," 
and  the  consequent  obligation  of  revolting  against  Madero. 
"The  Apostle"  was  saved  by  Huerta's  sword,  and  his  vic- 
tories over  Orozco  proclaimed  him  the  "military  genius"  of 
the  day.  Huerta,  following  historic  precedent,  betrayed 
Madero  and  permitted  the  latter's  Reyista  and  Felicista  en- 


352      WHOLE   TRUTH    ABOUT    MEXICO 

emies  to  put  him  to  death.  The  "military  genius"  Villa 
betrayed  Carranza,  and  in  the  natural  order  of  things  Obre- 
gon  will  be  obliged  to  betray  his  chief. 

Machiavelli  takes  up  the  relations  between  the  Caesar  and 
the  "military  genius"  and  finds  that  they  are  incompatible 
with  harmony.  The  only  logical  solution  is  the  recognition 
of  the  inalienable  right  of  the  "military  genius"  to  be  the 
Caesar.  The  testimony  of  history  constantly  reminds  the 
Caesar  that  if  there  is  a  "military  genius"  in  the  field  he  may 
eventually  overthrow  him,  and  perhaps  put  him  to  death. 
The  informer — odious  but  indispensable  to  the  existence  of 
Cassarism — daily  carries  tales  to  the  Caesar  of  the  conspira- 
cies of  the  "military  genius"  even  when  no  such  conspiracies 
exist.  The  informer  must  be  abundantly  supplied  with  the 
very  marrow  of  calumny,  and  he  chooses  the  unfortunate 
"military  genius"  as  the  base  of  supplies,  even  though  the  lat- 
ter may  have  no  personal  ambitions.  The  historic  phrase  (ftu 
quoque  Marce  Brute  fill  mi  ex  Us  es"  attributed  to  Caesar, 
has  remained  the  somber  formula  of  the  general  evolution  of 
Caesarian  forms  of  government  when  the  Caesar  is  not  a  good 
judge  of  men,  and  should  be  his  parting  words  as  he  falls, 
stabbed  through  the  heart  by  the  hand  of  the  traitor.  But 
in  Latin-America  the  dictator,  instead  of  cherishing  the  "mil- 
itary genius"  as  a  son,  detests  him  and  endeavors  to  reverse 
the  order,  making  Brutus  fall  by  the  hand  of  Caesar.  Ac- 
cording to  Machiavelli,  and  in  this  he  is  correct,  the  Caesar's 
life  is  as  much  in  danger  at  the  hands  of  the  "military 
genius"  as  the  life  of  the  latter  is  in  danger  at  the  hands  of 
the  Caesar.  On  the  other  hand,  when  public  opinion  has 
pronounced  against  the  emperor  it  looks  for  a  deliverer  at 
any  cost,  and  if  at  that  moment  there  is  a  military  hero  to 
turn  to,  it  proceeds  to  arouse  his  ambition,  to  hypnotize  him, 
to  convince  him,  in  order  to  induce  him  to  carry  out  the  inex- 
orable law  of  nations  ruled  by  dictators:  to  the  victor  be- 
long the  spoils.  If  the  "military  genius"  does  not  respond, 


THE    COLLAPSE    OF    CARRANCISM       353 

he  is  branded  a  coward,  unpatriotic,  despicable.  The  Caesar, 
on  his  side,  devotes  himself  to  nullifying  these  efforts,  to 
postponing  the  inevitable,  and  if  possible  to  putting  an  end 
to  the  "military  genius."  Nothing  is  left  to  the  latter  but 
to  follow  historical  precedent,  or  to  end  like  Belisarius,  the 
attractive  hero  of  the  Eastern  Empire,  a  wandering  beggar, 
blind  and  forgotten. 

Peace  in  Mexico  cannot  be  founded  on  the  Carranza- 
Obregon  formula,  which,  tested  sociologically,  gives  a  blood- 
and-death  reaction.  It  is  true  that  in  Mexico  we  have  had 
the  example  of  General  Sostenes  Rocha,  who  cleaved  to  Pres- 
ident Benito  Juarez  with  the  loyalty  of  Agrippa  for  Augus- 
tus; but  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  Rocha's  devotion  to 
Juarez  partook  of  the  nature  of  a  cult.  To  him  Juarez  was 
a  demi-god;  whereas,  according  to  certain  information  that 
has  filtered  through  the  pompous  phrases  of  the  Carrancista 
press,  and  above  all  from  the  declarations  of  some  of  the  rev- 
olutionary chiefs,  those  of  a  Sonora  colonel  in  particular,  it 
is  evident  that  Carranza  is  not  his  subordinate's  idol.  Ac- 
cording to  this  colonel,  Don  Venustiano  Carranza  is  only  "a 
poor  man"  in  General  Obregon's  eyes,  soaked  in  flattery  and 
adulation,  the  greater  part  of  which  has  been  paid  for  by  the 
First  Chief  himself  from  his  substantial  "reptile  fund." 

Even  in  the  event  that  Obregon  caved  in,  as  Reyes  did  in 
1909,  he  would  always  have  a  successor,  because  one  of  the 
most  formidable  enemies  to  Senor  Carranza's  ambition  is 
militarism,  irreconcilable  in  its  attitude  against  civilian  pres- 
idents, and  especially  against  a  civilian  who  has  not,  as 
was  said  of  President  Lerdo  de  Tejada,  the  "sun  for  a 
brain." 

PRESIDENT    WILSON'S    APOSTASY    AND    THE    REFORMERS 

In  every  body  of  men  credited  with  great  virtue  there  is 
always  a  certain  number  of  hypocrites.  In  every  body  of 


354      WHOLE   TRUTH    ABOUT    MEXICO 

unprincipled  politicians,  boasting  of  sublime  humanitarian 
principles,  there  is  always  a  certain  number  of  sincere  men, 
and  some  of  them  may  even  touch  the  heights  of  real  sub- 
limity. In  view  of  this  fact  we  are  obliged  to  accept  the 
presence  of  a  certain  number  of  truly  apostolic  men  among 
the  revolutionists,  even  though  they  may  be  thieves,  because 
it  is  possible  to  be  an  apostle  even  if  one  be  a  thief.  The  real 
apostle  who  is  also  a  fanatic  is  dangerous,  because  he  exer- 
cises a  power  akin  to  the  divine  over  the  masses,  as  is  ex- 
emplified by  Zapata's  influence  over  his  own  race.  Even 
though  President  Wilson  captures  and  executes  his  ffex-buen 
amigo"  (ex-good  friend),  the  bandit  Villa,  Villism,  instead 
of  dying  out  with  its  creator,  will  take  the  form  of  a  popular 
religious  cult  which  will  impregnate  with  fanaticism  all  the 
poor  to  whom  the  Constitutionalists  have  preached  the  dog- 
ma that  this  revolution  was  being  fought  expressly  to  make 
the  poor  happy.  The  poor  have  understood  what  they  have 
seen;  that  is,  that  although  the  ostensible  reason  of  the  spo- 
liation of  the  rich  was  to  benefit  the  poor,  the  Constitutional- 
ists have  not  lived  up  to  their  promises;  what  they  have 
stolen,  which  includes  all  that  the  poor  possessed,  they  have 
pocketed. 

The  unfortunate  Mexican  feels  that  he  actually  has  been 
robbed  by  his  apostles,  who  have  lost  all  standing  among 
the  people.  They  are  looked  upon  as  the  real  enemies  of  the 
people,  even  more  than  the  Cientificos  who  gave  them  work 
and  paid  with  silver.  Constitutionalism  either  does  not  give 
work  or  defrauds  the  working-man  by  paying  with  worthless 
money.  Villism  is  a  species  of  Vandalistic  vindication  of  the 
poor  against  Carrancism,  which  has  increased  their  misery 
and  which  laughs  at  their  hopes,  attempting  to  satisfy  their 
hunger  for  bread  and  slake  their  thirst  for  justice  by  flaunt- 
ing before  them  Carranza's  dazzling  ambition  to  restore  the 
decadent  Porfirism  of  1910.  Villism  may  triumph  and  give 
the  final  death  blow  to  Mexico,  or  it  may  always  remain  a 


THE    COLLAPSE    OF   CARRANCISM      355 

revolutionary  furnace,  well-kindled  or  only  partially  slacked, 
ready  at  any  moment  to  leap  into  flame. 

According  to  the  latest  reports,  an  extreme  radical  faction 
has  come  into  being  and  is  ready  for  the  struggle.  It  is  con- 
vinced that  as  the  Constitutionalists  have  manifested  their 
contempt  for  the  dictatorial  form  of  government,  Carranza 
has  become  the  reform's  worst  enemy.  They  are  as  keen 
now  for  the  distribution  of  the  supreme  power  among  dif- 
ferent Federal  and  state  powers  as  they  once  were  for  the 
distribution  of  land,  some  going  so  far  as  to  aspire  to  have 
the  nation  reformed  and  pulverized  by  a  luminous  conven- 
tion, dowered  with  a  corresponding  Comite  de  Sante  Public 
and  as  many  guillotines  as  may  be  necessary.  Senor  Car- 
ranza told  the  poet  Santos  Chocano  that  he  was  ready  to  go 
wherever  his  partisans  might  take  him.  I  think  this  is  doubt- 
ful, because  it  is  to  the  guillotine  that  the  partisans  of  the 
conventionist  type  usually  take  First  Chiefs  when  they  at- 
tempt to  assume  the  rank  of  kings  or  presidents. 

President  Wilson  is  beginning  to  gather  the  bitter  fruits 
of  his  idealism.  The  sincere  reformers  are  more  antagonistic 
to  President  Wilson  than  even  the  Huertistas,  and  it  must 
be  granted  that  they  are  amply  justified.  Our  great  revolu- 
tion, they  say,  was  initiated  to  carry  out  the  distribution  of 
lands  and  to  lift  from  Mexico's  neck  the  foreign  yoke,  and 
the  most  humiliating  example  of  the  latter  is  the  present 
Mexican  Government's  state  of  abject  subjection  to  the  tute- 
lage of  the  President  of  the  United  States. 

General  Alvarado,  the  governor  of  Yucatan,  ordered  that 
the  Yucatecan  lands  producing  the  valuable  henequen  should 
be  distributed  as  far  as  they  would  go,  not  only  among  the 
poor  of  the  state  but  among  all  poor  Mexicans.  General 
Alvarado  publicly,  and  over  his  own  signature,  explained 
that  the  promises  made  by  the  revolution  must  be  kept  at 
any  cost  in  order  to  avoid  bringing  dishonor  upon  it  and  in- 
curring the  charge  of  cowardice.  The  planters  endeavored 


356      WHOLE   TRUTH    ABOUT    MEXICO 

by  every  means  to  induce  the  governor  to  rescind  the  fatal 
decree,  and  not  receiving  a  favorable  reply  they  had  recourse 
to  Carranza,  who  upheld  the  governor.  The  planters  then 
sent  a  commission  to  Washington  which  obtained  from  Mr. 
Lansing,  the  Secretary  of  State,  the  promise  that  the 
Alvarado  decree  would  be  nullified  by  Carranza.  The  com- 
mission also  had  a  conference  in  the  United  States  with 
Senor  Luis  Cabrera,  the  First  Chief's  Secretary  of  Treas- 
ury, who  at  the  instance  of  Mr.  Lansing,  communicated  by 
the  unfaithful  revolutionist  Cabrera,  obtained  from  Carranza 
a  special  decree  nullifying  all  the  sacred,  socialistic,  vindicat- 
ing work  begun  by  General  Alvarado.  The  First  Chief 
placed  his  subordinate  in  a  ridiculous  position,  but  Alvarado 
himself  has  given  all  the  world  the  right  to  call  him  vile  and 
cowardly.  The  radical  faction,  in  a  printed  sheet  that  lies  be- 
fore me,  accuses  Mr.  Wilson  of  having  betrayed  them  and  of 
inciting  the  Mexican  people  to  a  new  revolution  more  bloody 
than  the  one  that  apparently  was  coming  to  an  end.  This  as- 
sertion is  based  upon  the  fact  that  the  Mexican  people  will 
not  tolerate  that,  after  the  unheard-of  sacrifices  they  have 
made  to  obtain  the  distribution  of  the  land,  Mr.  Wilson 
should  change  his  mind  and  decide  to  take  up  the  cause  of  the 
landowners.  I  do  not  believe  that  President  Wilson's  action 
means  a  betrayal  of  the  Mexican  reformers.  It  must  for  the 
time  being  be  looked  upon  simply  as  an  inexplicable  act  of 
apostasy.  Strange,  indeed,  must  be  the  reason  which  Presi- 
dent Wilson  will  be  able  to  give  in  justification  of  his  sud- 
den change  of  ideals,  ideals  which  have  contributed  to  the 
destruction  of  a  nation  of  15,000,000  inhabitants.  This 
holocaust  had  for  its  object  the  distribution  of  land,  and  when 
the  moment  arrived  to  fulfill  the  promises  so  sacredly  pledged 
by  the  revolution,  his  Secretary,  Mr.  Lansing,  forced  Car- 
ranza to  restore  the  old  order  in  Yucatan. 

In  the  incendiary  sheet  to  which  I  have  referred  the  mal- 
contents  point    to    Senor   Venustiano    Carranza   as   an    un- 


THE    COLLAPSE    OF    CARRANCISM       357 

happy  traitor  to  his  country,  basing  this  terrible  accusation 
upon  the  following  facts.  In  order  to  systematize  the  spo- 
liation of  the  henequen  planters  of  one-half  the  value  of 
their  gross  production,  General  Alvarado  ordered  the  reor- 
ganization of  the  Yucatan  Adjusting  Company.  The  profits 
of  this  spoliation  were  to  be  divided  between  the  de  facto 
Government,  the  Yucatan  state  Government,  and  the  in- 
triguing authors  of  this  combination — a  barefaced  monopoly 
for  universal  spoliation.  The  International  Harvester  Com- 
pany, which  had  a  contract  for  the  entire  henequen  pro- 
duction of  Yucatan,  complained  to  President  Wilson,  and  in 
order  that  this  adroit  business  scheme  might  not  fall 
through,  General  Alvarado  had  recourse  to  a  characteristic- 
ally Carrancista  measure.  He  obliged  all  the  planters,  under 
pain  of  confiscation  of  their  plantations  and  the  destruction 
of  their  maguey  fields,  to  form  a  commission  to  go  to  Wash- 
ington to  inform  President  Wilson  that  it  was  not  true  that 
they  had  been  despoiled,  or  that  the  Adjusting  Company  was 
in  any  sense  of  the  word  a  monopoly,  or  that  their  interests 
would  continue  to  suffer;  but  that,  on  the  contrary,  they 
were  eminently  satisfied  with  General  Alvarado's  orders, 
which  were  daily  adding  to  their  capital. 

The  foregoing  facts,  which  can  be  absolutely  substantiated, 
prove  that  the  governor  of  Yucatan  recognizes  President 
Wilson  as  the  supreme  authority  in  Mexican  affairs,  and  that 
the  revolutionist's  so-called  aspiration  to  confer  real  national 
independence  on  the  Mexican  Government  has  been  one  of 
the  many  farces  proclaimed  to  obtain  the  supreme  power. 
The  malcontents  conclude  by  saying  that  at  this  moment 
Mexico  is  being  governed  by  the  Wilson-Carranza  alliance, 
and  decide  that  from  the  moment  that  Mr.  Wilson  has  con- 
stituted himself  a  supreme  authority  in  Mexican  affairs  war 
against  Carranza  and  the  United  States  is  indispensable,  the 
Mexican  people  having  the  right  to  revolt  against  all  Mex- 
ican authority  which  oppresses  them. 


358      WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT    MEXICO 

The  spirit  manifested  by  these  malcontents,  who  are  rap- 
idly organizing,  increases  the  gravity  of  the  Mexican  conflict, 
and  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  President  Wilson's  conduct 
is  to  be  characterized  as  apostasy. 

A  REVOLUTION    IS   A   REVOLUTION 

The  positive  and  justifiable  basis  of  the  revolution  of  1910 
against  the  permanent  dictatorship  of  General  Diaz  was  the 
necessity  of  renewing  the  personnel  of  the  Government. 
Public  opinion  has  aspired  and  still  aspires  to  the  speedy  ap- 
pearance of  capable  new  men.  Mexico  cannot  hope  for 
anything  from  the  old  men  as  a  whole,  be  they  Porfiristas, 
Felicistas,  Huertistas  or  Carrancistas.  Neither  Senor  Venus- 
tiano  Carranza  nor  those  of  his  circle  belong  to  the  ranks 
of  the  new  men.  Carrancism  is  an  offshoot  of  Reyism,  and 
is  a  species  of  bossism  tainted  with  its  most  corrupt  and  per- 
nicious qualities. 

The  budding  statesmen  Carranza  has  held  up  to  the  pub- 
lic view  as  new  men  are  more  worn  out  than  the  Porfirian 
mummies  that  retired  into  their  niches  in  August,  1914.  In 
politics  nothing  ages  as  much  as  incompetency,  and  so  far  the 
Carrancista  younger  element  has  shown  more  aptitude  for 
appropriating  automobiles  and  other  things  not  belonging  to 
it,  than  to  dazzling  its  contemporaries  with  its  civic  virtue 
and  its  genius  for  government. 

Every  revolution  necessarily  brings  about  a  renewal,  and 
the  present  Mexican  revolution  has  attempted  the  daring  and 
dangerous  feat  of  renewing  not  only  the  political  order,  but 
the  social  as  well.  If  the  conquered  do  not  react  energetic- 
ally to  undo  the  revolutionary  program,  it  will  exterminate 
them  by  hunger,  pestilence,  expatriation  and  sorrow.  Some 
of  the  many  who  are  overwhelmed  by  abjection  may  be 
saved  by  humbly  soliciting  mercy  or  by  having  their  mendi- 
cancy relieved  by  official  preferment. 

There  are  many  so-called  new  men  belonging  to  the  old 


THE    COLLAPSE   OF   CARRANCISM      359 

element  who  with  cunning  cynicism  and  stupendous  aptitude 
for  intrigue  have  managed  to  worm  themselves  into  high  of- 
fices. These  they  do  not  deserve  even  among  bandits,  be- 
cause they  have  not  earned  them  by  exposing  their  lives,  but, 
like  all  shameless  politicians,  have  taken  advantage  of  the  un- 
sophisticated and  inexperienced  wild  beasts  they  are  guiding. 
Fortunately,  the  revolution  is  more  implacable  than  the  most 
implacable  revolutionist,  and  inasmuch  has  to  be  merciless 
toward  Carranza  and  all  the  men  of  the  old  stamp  who  pay 
court  to  him.  All  these  incompetents — followers  of  the  old 
regime  traditions,  but  traitors  to  it — must  be  eliminated  by 
the  revolution,  ending  their  career  tragically  or  going  into 
exile  to  enjoy  the  fruits  of  their  spoliation.  A  revolutionist 
who  does  not  possess  superior  traits  of  character  becomes 
brutalized.  He  believes  that  a  real  revolution  is  waged  ex- 
pressly to  satisfy  his  personal  ambitions,  and  when  these  are 
satisfied,  or  on  the  way  to  being  satisfied,  the  revolution  can 
be  brought  to  a  standstill,  just  as  a  powerful  engine  can  be 
stopped  at  the  will  of  the  engineer.  A  revolution  ends  when 
it  has  fulfilled  its  mission.  It  never  miscarries;  it  is  the 
dreams,  the  projects,  the  turpitudes  of  the  revolutionists 
which  miscarry.  Who  represents  the  de  facto  Government 
at  this  moment?  Carranza?  Then  the  revolution  has  not 
ended.  Carranza  is  the  product  of  the  discredited  Porfirian 
regime  and  it  is  politically  impossible,  no  matter  what  the 
slant,  as  yet  unknown,  the  revolution  may  take,  that  this 
should  end  by  raising  to  power  one  who  ought  to  be  most 
speedily  eliminated.  The  appointment  of  General  Obregon 
as  Secretary  of  War  signifies  that  Senor  Venustiano  Car- 
ranza has  taken  the  first  step  toward  exile  or  the  grave. 


CHAPTER   III 

FINAL   CONCLUSIONS:    PRKSIDKNT   WILSON'S 
LATKST  SKKIOUS  KKKORS 

'INI.   ONLY   SOLUTION    OF  Till*    MI-XFCAN    I'ROIJLKM    IN 

Shl'Th.MKKK, 


Till,  different  propositions  offered  for  the  solution  of 
the  Mexican  question  have  been: 
Kirst,    according    to    American    public    opinion: 
Armed  intervention,  or  to  It  ;,\  c  tin-  Mexicans  absolutely  free 
to  solve  the  present  anarchistic  situation  by  a  healthful  reac- 
tion or  by  self-extermination. 

Second,  according  to  the  opinion  of  foreigners  living  in 
Mexico:  Armed  intervention  to  establish  a  stable  govern- 
ment, supported  by  the  United  States  and  capable  of  guar- 
anteeing peace.  This  is  the  solution  upheld  by  the  European 
Governments  and  peoples.  The  Latin-American  republics 
have  not  expressed  a  general  opinion  on  the  subject. 

Third,  according  to  the  Mexican  patriotic  criterion, 
which  is  mine:  To  leave  the  Mexicans  absolutely  free 
to  solve  their  internal  difficulties,  relying  solely  upon  na- 
tional elements,  President  Wilson  relinquishing  his  idealistic 
theories  and  his  apostolic  and  humanitarian  efforts  in  behalf 
of  the  poor  and  downtrodden.  Only  in  the  event  that 
anarchy  attacks  foreigners  by  a  systematic,  well-formulated 
program  shall  the  United  States  intervene,  and  then 
strictly  in  conformity  with  the  dictates  of  international  law. 
In  case  anarchy  cannot  be  brought  to  an  end  by  a  salutary 
reaction  in  Mexico,  and  the  Mexican  people's  inability  to 
establish  a  tolerable  government  and  restore  social  order  be 

360 


FINAL   CONCLUSIONS  361 

plainly  demonstrated,  then  intervention  could  be  undertaken 
in  the  name  of  humanity,  based  upon  the  fact  that  the 
United  States  Government  had  given  complete  freedom  to 
ail  the  positive  reactionary  elements  to  work  out  the  nation's 
salvation. 

From  this  it  will  he  ^erji  that  the  rational  solution  of  the 
an  problem  could  not  be  other  than  armed  interven- 
tion, or  the  absolute  abstention  by  the  President  of  the 
United  States  from  interference  in  Mexico's  internal  affairs. 

Kor  military  n-a :,oir,,  upon  which  it  is  unnecessary  to  ex- 
patiate here,  the  United  States  cannot  intervene  in  Mexico 
as  easily  as  it  has  in  Panama,  in  Nicaragua  or  in  Haiti,  be- 
cause it  would  necessitate  putting  the  nation  upon  a  war 
footing,  a  condition  not  existing  at  present.  The  solution 
by  armed  intervention  requires  time  for  preparation  in  order 
to  carry  it  out  prudently,  and  this  could  not  be  done  in  less 
than  six  months.  In  September,  1915,  then,  the  immediate 
solution  of  the  Mexican  question  for  the  President  of  the 
United  States  was  to  leave  anarchy  to  operate  with  absolute 
freedom  for  an  indefinite  period,  or  until  the  United  States 
was  in  a  fit  military  position  to  have  recourse  to  armed  in- 
tervention. 

But  the  solution  I  have  outlined — the  only  feasible  one 
at  the  time — did  not  appeal  to  President  Wilson.  Swayed 
by  political  motives,  looking  to  the  coming  elections,  he  was 
anxious  to  put  an  end  to  anarchy  in  Mexico  and  present  as 
one  of  his  presidential  achievements  the  pacification  of  a 
people  who,  supported  by  his  benevolence,  made  great  sacri- 
fices in  order  to  die  of  hunger  and  to  totter  to  their  graves 
along  the  <!a/,/ling  highway  of  liberty  pointed  out  by  him. 
The  plan  adopted  by  Mr.  WiKon  to  put  an  end  to  anarchy 
in  Mexico  \va>  nothing  short  of  a  great  blunder.  He  called 
a  me. -ting  of  tlie  chiefs  of  the  various  factions  fighting  in 
Mexico,  expecting  by  means  of  moral  force — no  longer  pos- 
b\  the  United  States — to  oblige  them  to  sign  a  peace 


362      WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT    MEXICO 

compact  and  to  choose  a  provisional  president  whom  all 
would  agree  to  obey.  President  Wilson's  blunder  consisted 
in  continuing  to  close  his  eyes  to  the  testimony  of  history, 
which  should  serve  as  a  guide  for  statesmen.  Never  has 
anarchy  in  Latin-America,  originating  from  strifes  in  which 
the  element  of  personalism  has  existed,  been  solved  by  im- 
personal means.  Mexican  anarchy,  like  all  anarchy  reigning 
in  countries  ruled  by  dictators,  has  to  be  brought  to  an  end 
by  the  appearance  of  a  dictator  created  by  the  situation  it- 
self, which  will  also  take  care  of  creating  official  men,  or 
what  amounts  to  the  same,  forming  a  governing  aristocracy, 
which  is  indispensable  even  in  the  dictatorial  system. 

Dictators  are  never  appointed ;  they  create  the  post ;  they 
impose  themselves  upon  the  people;  they  organize  their  des- 
potism; they  develop  it,  and  govern  with  more  or  less  suc- 
cess as  the  case  may  be.  When  President  Wilson's  plan  to 
put  an  end  to  anarchy  in  Mexico  by  means  of  a  conciliatory 
meeting  failed,  he  decided  to  settle  upon  Sefior  Venustiano 
Carranza  as  the  "iron  hand,"  because  the  latter  had  con- 
vinced him  that  he  had  dominated  the  situation  from  the 
military  standpoint.  At  this  point  President  Wilson  was 
guilty  of  another  blunder  in  believing  that  Carranza  had 
dominated  the  military  situation.  The  dominator  was  Gen- 
eral Alvaro  Obregon,  and  as  the  sociological  law  governing 
dictatorial  nations  is,  to  the  victor  belong  the  spoils,  Presi- 
dent Wilson's  recognition  of  Carranza  would  have  placed 
him  in  a  ridiculous  position  if  Obregon  had  laid  claim  to 
his  rights  to  the  Mexican  presidency  won  by  his  victorious 
sword.  In  that  case  President  Wilson  would  have  been 
obliged  to  embroil  the  Mexicans  in  a  new  war  by  fighting 
Obregon,  as  he  fought  Huerta,  until  he  overthrew  him. 

Even  if  Obregon  does  not  claim  his  rights,  rights  that  no 
Latin-American  dictatorial  country  can  deny  him,  a  twen- 
tieth-century dictator  in  America  must  possess  three  qualities 
to  bring  a  country  out  of  anarchy  and  reconstruct  it  socially 


FINAL   CONCLUSIONS  363 

and  politically:  He  must  have  an  "iron  hand";  he  must 
respect  the  representative  democratic  form  of  government; 
and  he  must  have  public  opinion  in  his  favor,  and  the  de- 
cided support,  or  at  least  the  toleration,  of  the  conservative 
classes. 

As  has  been  proved,  Senor  Venustiano  Carranza  has  read 
the  law  of  dictators  backwards,  as  he  places  the  "iron  hand" 
upon  the  peaceful  and  the  honest,  and  caresses  the  bandits 
with  a  maternal  tenderness.  Carranza's  ambition  is  the 
well-defined  program  of  being  the  parasite  of  those  who 
make  game  of  his  weakness,  consenting  to  all  kinds  of  crimes 
in  order  to  win  their  false  allegiance.  The  indispensable 
requisite  of  respect  for  the  representative  democratic  form  of 
government  does  not  exist,  having  been  replaced  by  the 
shameless  proclamation  of  the  period  of  pre-Constitutional- 
ism,  reminiscent  of  prehistoric  tyranny.  With  regard  to 
the  requisite  of  public  opinion,  President  Wilson  has  com- 
mitted the  unpardonable  error  of  believing  that  in  Latin- 
America  all  that  is  necessary  to  smother  anarchy  is  to  create 
an  "iron  hand,"  no  matter  who  the  wielder  may  be.  The 
history  of  Latin-American  nations  throughout  one  hundred 
years,  as  well  as  the  history  of  Imperial  Rome  and  of  the 
Italian  condottiere,  proves  that  dictators  who  have  been 
hated  by  the  whole  nation,  and  who  were  without  any  other 
support  than  that  of  their  miserable  agents,  were  always 
weak  in  the  extreme  and  were  subject  to  being  betrayed  by 
their  own  followers.  They  were  obsessed  by  the  terror  of 
the  ever-increasing  odium  of  the  public  which  urged  them — 
traitors  to  tyranny — to  throw  themselves  at  the  mercy  of 
the  people  in  order  to  preserve  the  fruit  of  their  rapine. 

Neither  Mr.  Wilson  nor  the  delegates  of  the  Latin-Amer- 
ican Government  who,  in  October,  1915,  made  up  the  com- 
mission which  so  degraded  Mexico — placing  her  on  the 
same  level  as  Albania — recognized  the  fact  that  even  though 
Carranza  had  dominated  the  situation  from  a  military  point 


364      WHOLE   TRUTH    ABOUT    MEXICO 

of  view,  the  guerrilla  bands  had  not  yet  been  subjugated. 
And  even  if  he  dominated  these,  there  still  remained  the 
economic  situation  (the  problem  of  the  starving  nation), 
and  the  financial  situation  (the  complete  state  of  bank- 
ruptcy), which  must  eventually  lead  him  in  the  direction 
toward  which  he  is  now  headed.  It  is  becoming  impossible 
for  him  to  pay  his  mercenaries  and  the  inevitable  result  will 
be  that  they  will  pounce  upon  the  remainder  of  the  country's 
wealth,  because  otherwise  they  will  starve.  But  even 
if  the  financial  situation  could  be  solved  and  dominated,  pub- 
lic opinion  still  remains  which,  as  I  have  so  frequently  said, 
basing  my  assertions  on  our  national  history,  always  ends 
by  obsessing  the  paid  assassins  of  the  tyrant  and  inducing 
them  to  turn  their  arms  against  the  person  of  the  Caesar. 
National  and  foreign  public  opinion  is  against  Car- 
rancism,  and  there  is  a  counter-revolutionary  movement, 
whether  President  Wilson  wishes  to  acknowledge  it  or  not. 
First,  Villism,  properly  so-called,  which  embodies  the  popu- 
lar Mexican  hatred  for  the  United  States  and  for  President 
Wilson  in  particular.  This  hatred  is  manifested  by  the  dis- 
position of  all  the  bandits  to  kill  Americans  and  destroy 
their  property,  not  only  in  the  state  of  Chihuahua  but  all 
over  the  country.  Second,  Zapatism,  which  represents  the 
real  aspirations  of  the  indigenous  race,  brave,  indomitable, 
resolved  to  triumph  or  to  die,  and  which  professes  the  same 
degree  of  hatred  for  the  United  States  that  the  Villistas  do. 
Third,  the  conservative  classes,  represented  by  all  property 
owners,  business  men,  manufacturers,  the  great  bureau- 
cratic class  which  is  starving  to  death,  and  the  radical 
Jacobin  lower  middle  class.  All  these  various  elements  have 
the  most  profound  hatred  for  President  Wilson,  because, 
being  a  white  man,  he  has  given  his  protection  to  a  war 
against  the  whites;  because,  being  a  foreigner,  he  has  pro- 
tected a  war  against  foreigners;  because,  being  the  Presi- 
dent of  the  United  States  and  in  virtue  of  the  Monroe  Doc- 


FINAL   CONCLUSIONS  365 

trine  bound  to  see  that  the  rights  of  foreigners  who  are  not 
Americans  are  respected,  he  has  protected  the  bandits,  who 
are  the  enemies  of  all  foreigners,  presenting  the  only  example 
in  history  of  a  proxy  protecting  the  enemies  of  his  own 
clients;  because,  being  an  American,  that  is,  a  believer  in 
liberty  of  conscience,  he  has  protected  a  frenzied  war  against 
Catholicism,  waged  as  cruelly  and  bloodily  as  the  religious 
wars  of  the  sixteenth  century;  and,  lastly,  because  he  has 
protected  a  war  of  the  poor  against  the  rich,  notwithstand- 
ing the  fact  that  he  is  the  President  of  a  democratic  republic 
in  which  one  of  the  first  rights  of  a  man  is  to  work  to  get 
rich,  and  the  second,  to  be  respected  when  he  has  attained 
this  goal. 

When  the  Civil  War  ended  in  1865,  three  years  after 
the  invasion  of  Mexico  by  the  French,  Mr.  Seward,  the 
Secretary  of  State,  sent  Napoleon  III,  through  Mr.  Bige- 
low,  United  States  Minister  to  France,  the  famous  note  in 
which  he  was  told  that  the  United  States,  in  view  of  the 
amplified  Monroe  Doctrine,  could  not  consent  to  the  occu- 
pation of  Mexico  by  a  foreign  army,  and  that  it  was  abso- 
lutely necessary  that  this  should  be  withdrawn.  French 
diplomacy  called  President  Lincoln's  attention  to  the  fact 
that  the  Monroe  Doctrine  was  not  being  violated,  because 
the  French  army  was  not  in  Mexico  for  the  purpose  of 
acquiring  territory,  either  definitely  or  temporarily,  but 
simply  to  establish  solidly  a  government  freely  elected  by 
the  Mexican  people,  who  had  voted  for  a  monarchy,  select- 
ing as  their  ruler  the  Archduke  Maximilian  of  Austria. 
Mr.  Seward  replied  that  even  if  this  were  the  case  it  did 
not  meet  the  United  States'  approval  to  have  a  country 
ruled  by  a  monarchical  form  of  government  for  its  next-door 
neighbor.  As  interpreted  by  Mr.  Seward,  the  Monroe 
Doctrine  was  stretched  to  include  the  prohibition  of  the 
establishment  of  monarchies  in  Latin-America. 

The  American  people  and  the  Latin- American  republics 


366      WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT   MEXICO 

have  the  right  to  ask  Mr.  Wilson:  Does  the  establishment, 
adjoining  its  frontier,  of  a  socialistic,  anarchistic  republic, 
having  as  a  fundamental  principle  the  war  of  the  poor 
against  the  rich,  meet  with  the  approval  of  the  people  of 
the  United  States,  where  a  menacing  Socialistic  party  already 
exists,  and  which  is  in  a  fair  way  to  develop  along  lines  ex- 
tremely dangerous  to  the  stability  of  the  American  Govern- 
ment? Are  monarchical  institutions  more  dangerous  to  the 
well-being  of  the  American  people  than  anarchistic  institu- 
tions, given  over  to  pillage,  crime  and  national  dissolution? 
I  believe  President  Wilson  in  the  position  of  President  of 
the  United  States  is  one  of  the  most  dangerous  enemies  of 
humanity. 

If  the  conservative  classes  are  opposed  to  the  establish- 
ment of  Carrancism  let  us  see  what  goes  on  in  the  popular 
class.  For  eight  years  General  Reyes  carried  on — secretly 
and  in  the  open — a  campaign  against  the  Cientificos,  trying 
to  inflame  popular  sentiment  against  them  and  to  disguise 
the  war  of  the  poor  against  the  rich  by  the  substitution  of 
one  word  for  another.  The  Reyista  formula  was:  The 
war  of  the  poor  against  the  rich,  who  are  the  Cientificos. 
For  three  years  after  the  Creelman  conference,  from 
1908  to  1910,  inclusive,  the  agitators  all  over  the  country 
who  were  affiliated  with  the  Reyistas  upheld  the  war  of  the 
poor  against  the  Cientificos,  making  the  people  believe  that 
they  were  the  rich  men  of  the  nation.  In  the  Madero  elec- 
tions of  1912,  the  demagogues,  in  order  to  break  the  power 
of  the  Catholic  party,  which  possessed  enormous  electoral 
strength,  openly  and  boldly  fell  back  upon  the  promise  of 
war  against  the  rich  and  the  distribution  of  their  property 
among  the  poor.  The  promise  of  the  distribution  of  the 
land  has  been  the  cloak  most  frequently  used  to  conceal  the 
real  cry  to  excite  the  popular  mind — the  war  of  the  poor 
against  the  rich  and  the  extermination  of  the  latter.  I  have 
given  ample  proof  in  this  book  that  the  sinister,  vivifying 


FINAL   CONCLUSIONS  367 

principle  of  the  revolution  has  really  been  two  leading  pas- 
sions carried  to  the  point  of  dementia — vengeance  and  pil- 
lage. By  means  of  this  great  promise  the  Mexican  people 
became  convinced  that  the  revolution  had  been  waged,  or 
should  be  waged,  for  the  exclusive  benefit  of  the  poor.  As 
these  people  are  illiterate,  their  boundless  credulity  was 
played  upon,  and  they  were  convinced  that  with  the  division 
of  the  wealth  of  the  rich  among  the  poor  they  would  be 
rich  and,  consequently,  happy,  because  they  would  not  have 
to  work. 

The  revolution  that  overthrew  Huerta  was  initiated  and 
consummated  by  the  men  of  the  north,  the  population  of 
this  section  being  2,500,000.  The  northerners  had  the  active 
support  of  the  states  of  Zacatecas,  San  Luis  Potosi  and  Vera 
Cruz,  and  the  moral  support  of  the  10,000,000  inhabitants 
of  the  central  states.  When  the  northerners  triumphed  and 
obtained  possession  of  all  the  Republic  except  the  state  of 
Oaxaca  and  the  territory  dominated  by  Zapata,  they  ordered 
the  disarmament,  under  pain  of  death,  of  all  the  towns.  No 
one  possessing  a  firearm  or  sidearm  of  any  description  was 
allowed  to  keep  it.  Having  accomplished  the  complete  dis- 
armament, the  northerners  proclaimed  themselves  conquerors 
of  the  central  states  and  the  inhabitants  became  virtual  slaves. 

Such  is  the  democracy  President  Wilson  has  succeeded  in 
establishing  in  Mexico  at  the  expense  of  its  national  life. 

Naturally,  the  virile  portion  of  this  enslaved  population  is 
beginning  to  understand  its  true  situation,  and  is  resolved 
not  to  submit  to  the  yoke  imposed  by  the  northerners.  They, 
moreover,  have  seen  and  continue  to  see  that  the  northerners 
have  despoiled  the  rich  of  all  their  possessions,  but  have  not 
divided  them  among  the  poor,  that,  on  the  contrary, 
any  unfortunate  poor  person  caught  stealing  is  shot.  The 
fruits  of  this  rapine  are  for  the  conquerors,  and  an  evident 
undercurrent  of  insurrection  against  their  oppressors  is  be- 
ginning to  be  evident  among  the  working  classes;  that  is, 


368      WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT   MEXICO 

among  the  eighty-five  per  cent  which  has  aroused  Mr.  Wil- 
son's sympathies.  Carrancism,  then,  has  arrayed  against  it 
at  present  the  odium  of  the  poor,  who  have  been  deceived 
and  placed  in  such  a  desperate  plight  by  the  rapacity  of  the 
conquerors,  as  well  as  by  their  inability  to  govern.  An 
actual  state  of  famine  is  not  far  off.  Paper  money  is  depre- 
ciating rapidly  and  the  daily  wage  is  not  increasing,  even  at 
a  rate  to  enable  the  poor  to  starve  gradually  to  death. 

A  real  statesman — and  undoubtedly  Mr.  Wilson  is  not 
one — should  have  taken  into  consideration  the  fact  that 
from  a  political  standpoint  Senor  Carranza  cannot  be  the 
head  of  the  Mexican  Government.  All  honest  Maderistas 
hate  him.  Senor  Carranza  has  carried  his  passion  for  ven- 
geance to  the  point  of  confiscating  all  Madero's  property,  as 
well  as  that  of  his  brother  Gustavo.  For  Carranza  only 
one  rule  holds  good :  either  you  are  a  Carrancista  or  you  are 
not;  if  not,  you  are  to  be  punished  by  confiscation  of  all 
your  property  and  even  death  itself.  A  politician  of  this  sort 
can  never  govern.  Implacable  haters  were  never  born  to 
rule;  they  are  destined  to  raise  up  an  enemy  to  every  square 
yard  of  territory  they  profess  to  rule.  In  October,  1915, 
Senor  Carranza  was  face  to  face  with  the  revolting  forces — 
some  armed,  others  about  to  be  armed — of  the  Maderistas, 
the  Huertistas,  the  Felicistas,  the  Villistas,  the  Zapatistas, 
the  counter-reformers,  the  landowners,  the  roving  bandits, 
the  dissatisfied  bandits,  who  will  not  long  remain  faithful 
to  him,  the  Catholics,  and  even  the  clergy.  And  since  the 
Columbus  incident  he  will  have  against  him,  whether  Villa 
is  captured  or  not,  every  true  patriot,  taking  into  account 
that  there  are  also  patriots  in  the  ranks  of  the  Carrancistas. 
No  one  will  forgive  Carranza  for  having  given  permission 
for  the  punitive  expedition  undertaken  by  the  United  States 
which  is  so  humiliating  for  Mexico  and  significant  of  a 
tremendous  blow  against  her  sovereignty. 

Reflecting  upon  the  facts  I  have  just  stated — all  of  which, 


FINAL   CONCLUSIONS  369 

excepting  the  Columbus  incident,  existed  in  October,  1915 — 
one  becomes  convinced  of  Carranza's  political  impotency  to 
establish  a  stable  government.  Nevertheless,  President  Wil- 
son decided  to  recognize  Carranza,  without  feeling  the 
slightest  compassion  for  the  Mexican  people;  without  taking 
into  consideration  the  abject  state  of  salvery  to  which  they 
had  been  reduced;  without  experiencing  any  sense  of  moral 
responsibility  at  confirming  the  subjugation  of  I2,OOO,OOO 
souls  in  the  central  states  by  the  men  of  the  north;  without 
estimating  his  responsibility  before  the  American  people  for 
his  conduct,  because  his  action  could  not  help  but  provoke 
a  fierce  and  inextinguishable  hatred  of  Americans  among  the 
people  whom  he  had  helped  to  enslave.  I  am  going  to  set 
forth  the  pitious  results  of  this  action,  although  they  may 
be  well  known. 


CHAPTER  IV 
ARMED  INTERVENTION  BEGINS 

WHO  IN  REALITY  IS  VILLA? 

IN  view  of  the  Columbus  incident,  the  world,  moved  by 
the  moral  aspect  of  the  question,  has  exclaimed:  So 
long  as  Villa  killed  Mexicans  and  foreigners,  other 
than  Americans,  so  long  as  he  indulged  in  brutal  mutilations, 
so  long  as  he  destroyed  public  and  private  property,  so  long 
as  he  sacked  and  burned,  and  trampled  civilization  under 
foot,  he  was  for  President  Wilson  and  his  unlucky  advisers 
a  hero,  a  liberator,  a  military  genius,  a  Napoleon,  a  William 
Tell.  But  it  was  enough  for  Villa  to  turn  the  smallest  of 
his  batteries  against  his  former  protectors,  for  the  ardent 
admirers  of  yesterday  to  rise  and  brand  him  as  a  wretched 
bandit  worthy  only  of  death. 

It  is  evident  that  the  American  people  are  not  unmoral, 
perverse  or  imbecile.  They  are  capable  of  the  noblest  pub- 
lic passions  and  as  quick  to  respond  to  the  electric  current 
of  public  sentiment  as  any  Latin  or  subjugated  nation.  The 
American  people  knew  Villa  was  a  bandit;  but  when  a 
bandit  represents  a  great  revolutionary  cause,  his  repugnant 
physical  characteristics  are  but  an  atom  compared  with  the 
immensity  of  his  political  character.  The  American  peo- 
ple saw  in  Villa  a  Ziska  struggling  to  redeem  an  enslaved 
people,  languishing  from  hunger,  pain  and  brutalizing  tradi- 
tions, surrounded  by  marvellous  lands,  but  despised  and  kept 

370 


ARMED    INTERVENTION    BEGINS        371 

under  by  a  vicious,  avaricious,  plutocratic  landowning  class. 
The  American  people  have  but  one  alternative;  they  must 
either  face  the  unfavorable  verdict  of  humanity  and  history, 
or  agree  that  they  considered  Villa  a  great  leader,  equal 
to  Drake,  acclaimed  by  the  British,  or  Herman  Cortes,  hon- 
ored as  the  conqueror  of  the  New  World.  And  no  one 
will  deny  that  both  were  as  much  to  be  admired  as  heroes 
as  they  were  to  be  execrated  as  bandits. 

Villa,  in  his  capacity  of  President  of  the  Republic  of  Chi- 
huahua, was  for  President  Wilson  a  colleague ;  as  an  apostle, 
his  confrere ;  as  a  redeemer  of  the  Mexican  people,  an  equal ; 
as  a  politician,  a  "buen  amigo."  President  Wilson  must 
take  his  choice.  Either  he  must  acknowledge  that  he  con- 
firmed the  American  people's  universal  acclamation  of  Villa 
as  a  belligerent,  or  that  as  the  President  of  the  United  States 
he  has  lowered  his  dignity  to  an  inconceivable  depth:  first, 
by  treating  a  bandit  with  the  consideration  due  to  an  equal; 
second,  by  sending  the  Chief  of  Staff  of  the  American  Army 
to  treat  as  power  to  power  with  a  bandit;  and,  finally,  by 
allowing  the  American  soldiers,  who  are  the  social,  political 
and  legal  representatives  of  the  national  honor,  to  honor 
Villa  by  the  presentation  of  arms.  There  is  only  one  way 
open  for  President  Wilson  to  evade  the  responsibility  that 
rests  upon  him  for  having  stained  his  administration  and 
his  country  by  maintaining  cordial  official  relations  with  the 
bandit  Villa,  and  that  is  to  stand  up  manfully  for  the  truth 
(which  will  be  the  verdict  of  history),  and  confess  that  in 
the  eyes  of  the  United  States  Government  and  the  American 
people  Villa  has  been  a  glorious  belligerent,  a  warrior  of 
the  epic  type,  fighting  for  a  great  revolutionary  cause,  en- 
compassing the  humanitarian  dreams  of  President  Wilson. 

In  November,  1914,  the  celebrated  governing  Conven- 
tion was  established  with  its  ministers,  army,  administra- 
tive body,  counsellors,  diplomatists  and  everything  that  was 
necessary  to  give  it  a  representative  form,  the  majority  of 


372      WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT   MEXICO 

Mexican  territory  coming  under  its  jurisdiction.  Mr.  Bryan 
entered  a  claim  before  this  Convention  for  the  killing  of  an 
American  by  a  Zapatista  soldier,  and  after  brief  negotiations 
the  Conventional  Government  agreed  to  recognize  the  claim 
and  to  indemnify  the  widow  of  the  deceased.  When  com- 
munication between  the  capital  and  the  north  was  cut  off, 
the  Convention  appointed  Villa  General-in-Chief  of  all  the 
Conventional  army  and  delegate  of  the  Convention  in  the 
north,  investing  him  with  supreme  faculties,  fully  as  ample 
as  those  possessed  by  the  Convention  itself.  Villa  proceeded 
at  once,  in  virtue  of  his  exalted  functions,  to  form  an  admin- 
istration, naming  a  cabinet,  appointing  diplomatists  and 
counsellors,  and  exercised  in  the  north  an  absolute  govern- 
ment as  the  representative  of  the  Conventional  Government. 

PAN-AMERICANISM    IS   A   FARCE   OR   AN   IGNOMINY 

Pan-Americanism  has  to  be  either  a  broken  reed  or  some- 
thing decidedly  unpleasant  and  unsavory.  The  fundamental 
reason  for  the  foundation  of  Pan-Americanism  was  the  co- 
operation of  all  the  nations  on  the  American  continent  to 
guarantee  .each  other's  independence.  The  note  sent  by 
President  Wilson  to  General  Huerta  in  August,  1913,  by 
his  representative,  Mr.  Lind,  was  a  barefaced  attack  upon 
Mexican  sovereignty  from  the  moment  President  Wilson 
imperatively  ordered  President  Huerta — recognized  by  all 
the  Great  Powers  as  President  of  Mexico — to  cease  hostili- 
ties at  once,  to  renounce  the  presidency,  to  arrange  for  gen- 
eral elections  and  to  submit  to  the  prohibition  of  appearing 
as  a  presidential  candidate  himself.  What  did  Pan-Ameri- 
canism do  in  the  face  of  so  flagrant  a  violation  of  Mexican 
sovereignty?  What  Michelena,  the  Mexican  general,  said  of 
the  judges  of  the  Supreme  Federal  Court  in  1827:  "These 
gentlemen  are  in  their  posts  to  flatter  the  winning  revolu- 
tionists and  to  sentence  the  losers."  The  Latin-American 


ARMED    INTERVENTION    BEGINS        373 

members  of  the  Pan-American  Union  are  in  their  posts  to 
flatter  the  United  States  Government,  because  it  is  strong, 
and  to  sentence  the  weaker  nations,  which  are  related  to 
them  by  ties  of  blood,  to  death  or  degradation. 

In  May,  1914,  the  Pan-Americans  gave  their  support  to 
the  mediation  comedy  held  at  Niagara  Falls.  Their  mis- 
sion should  have  been  to  censure  the  government  which 
brusquely  exacted  satisfaction  by  arms  when  it  was  being 
granted  by  diplomatic  means.  Even  more.  The  Pan- 
Americans  countenanced  the  subterfuge  of  prolonging  the 
negotiations  in  order  that  Huerta's  overthrow  might  be 
effected,  thus  saving  Mr.  Wilson  from  the  anger  of  the 
wounded  Mexican  dictator,  who  was  resolved  to  invade 
Texas  in  order  to  convert  Mr.  Wilson's  nicely-planned 
comedy  into  a  dark  tragedy. 

In  October,  1915,  the  Pan-Americans,  in  the  fulfillment 
of  their  duty,  once  more  proved  their  littleness.  They  were 
called  together  to  decide  upon  the  internal  political  problem 
of  the  Mexican  nation.  They  treated  Mexico  as  the  Euro- 
pean Powers  treated  Albania  and,  albeit  their  Pan-Ameri- 
canism, acquiesced  in  the  formation  of  a  conciliatory  com- 
mission which  should  decide  which  of  the  warring  chiefs 
should  be  recognized.  In  other  words,  their  role  was  to 
relieve  Mr.  Wilson  of  the  disloyalty  of  convoking  the  chiefs 
of  the  various  Mexican  factions,  so  that  they  might  name  a 
provisional  president.  When  all  the  chiefs,  except  the  Car- 
rancista  representatives,  had  answered  Mr.  Wilson's  call,  he 
decided  to  break  his  promises,  ridicule  the  attitude  of  the 
attendants,  frustrate  their  hopes  and  surprise  them  by  recog- 
nizing Carranza.  This  was  equivalent  to  imposing  Car- 
ranza  as  the  dictator  of  Mexico,  because  it  gave  the  assured 
protection  of  the  United  States  Government  and  the  conse- 
quent power  to  snuff  out  all  opponents  of  Carrancism.  One 
must  have  very  little  knowledge  of  human  nature  not  to 
know  that  in  the  face  of  Mr.  Wilson's  treachery  Villa  and 


374      WHOLE   TRUTH    ABOUT    MEXICO 

Zapata  would  be  inflamed  with  hatred  and  decide  upon 
prompt  vengeance — it  mattered  not  what,  so  long  as  it  were 
telling. 

According  to  Senator  Fall,  the  conduct  of  the  Latin- 
American  members  of  the  Pan-American  Union  has  been 
mysterious,  and  without  a  doubt  it  has  been  surprising.  Be- 
fore the  formation  of  the  Conciliatory  Commission — which 
might  aptly  be  called  the  Treacherous  Commission — they 
were  opposed  to  the  appointment  of  Carranza.  They  had 
been  influenced  by  Duval  West's  report.  Mr.  West,  a 
representative  and  highly  respected  gentleman,  had  been 
commissioned  by  President  Wilson  to  report  the  true  state 
of  things  in  Mexico.  They  also  took  into  consideration  the 
following  reports:  that  of  the  American  Red  Cross,  which 
was  adverse  to  Carranza;  that  of  the  Ministers  from  Brazil 
and  Guatemala,  accredited  to  the  legitimate  Mexican  Gov- 
ernment; that  of  the  European  Diplomatic  Corps  stationed 
in  Mexico;  besides  the  information  possessed  by  the  Wash- 
ington Government  and  the  various  public  statements  made 
by  eminent  Mexicans  living  in  the  United  States  and  which 
were  based  upon  documentary  evidence.  These  reports  were 
supported  by  the  declarations  made  before  a  notary  public 
by  prominent  Americans  who  had  escaped  from  Mexico, 
afraid  to  remain  at  the  mercy  of  the  mob  that  pretended  to 
govern.  All  this  weighty  testimony  was  set  aside,  dis- 
credited for  that  submitted  by  Sefior  Eliseo  Arredondo,  Car- 
ranza's  agent,  supported  by  Senor  Luis  Cabrera,  Carranza's 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  who  came  to  the  United  States 
resolved  to  exert  his  powers  of  eloquence — not  as  an  orator, 
for  he  does  not  possess  them — but  as  a  diplomat,  taught  in 
some  mysterious  but  very  thorough  school.  And  the  Latin- 
American  members  of  the  Pan-American  Union  decided  in 
favor  of  Carranza! 


ARMED    INTERVENTION    BEGINS        375 

A  VERY   SIGNIFICANT    HISTORICAL   PRECEDENT 

In  1862  Mr.  Corwin,  United  States  Minister  to  Mexico, 
asked  President  Juarez,  on  behalf  of  President  Lincoln,  to 
permit  the  American  Federal  army  to  cross  Mexican  terri- 
tory in  order  to  make  an  attack  upon  the  Southern  army. 
The  day  after  Mr.  Corwin  had  presented  this  petition,  the 
agent  of  the  Southern  Government  called  upon  President 
Juarez  to  tell  him  that  his  Government  would  not  tolerate 
the  passage  of  Northern  troops  through  Mexican  territory. 
Such  an  action,  he  said,  would  be  considered  as  an  alliance 
between  the  Mexican  and  Federal  Governments,  and  the 
Southerners  would  declare  war  against  Mexico.  President 
Juarez  called  his  attention  to  the  fact  that  under  interna- 
tional law  no  such  government  as  the  Southern  Government 
existed  and,  as  Mexico  had  not  recognized  the  belligerency 
of  the  Confederate  States,  they  were  nothing  but  rebels  and 
the  Mexican  Government  could  not  take  up  for  considera- 
tion claims  or  petitions  which  could  lawfully  be  submitted 
only  by  an  established  government  or  recognized  belliger- 
ents. The  Mexican  City  press,  which  sympathized  with 
the  Southern  cause,  advocated  recognizing  their  belligerency. 
The  Secretary  of  Foreign  Relations  was  interpellated  in  the 
Federal  Congress  with  regard  to  this  serious  question,  and 
a  heated  debate  was  held  in  secret  session,  which,  however, 
resulted  in  non-recognition  of  the  belligerency  of  the  South; 
but  neither  did  it  grant  the  request  to  allow  the  troops  to 
pass  through  Mexican  territory.  Senor  Manuel  Doblado,  a 
great  political  orator,  upheld  the  right  of  the  Confederates 
to  declare  war  upon  Mexico  in  case  the  Mexican  Govern- 
ment should  grant  the  desired  permission,  because,  although 
according  to  international  law  the  Southerners  were  rebels, 
in  the  sphere  of  reality  they  were  belligerents,  possessing  the 
physical  and  moral  right  to  act  in  the  premises. 

There  were  cases,  said  Senor  Doblado,  in  which  the  real, 


376      WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT   MEXICO 

the  legitimate  and  the  just  were  opposed  to  what  in  a  legal 
sense  is  unjust,  and  in  this  case  every  honest  man  and  every 
government  worthy  of  the  name  should  be  on  the  side  of 
justice;  more  so,  as  no  law  compelled  the  Mexican  Govern- 
ment to  an  act  of  injustice  such  as  that  of  acceding  to  the 
petition  of  President  Lincoln's  diplomatic  representative. 
The  Mexican  Congress  unanimously  agreed  that  a  declara- 
tion of  war  against  Mexico  by  the  South,  would  without 
any  doubt  be  justifiable,  if  Juarez  gave  permission  for  the 
Federal  army  to  cross  Mexican  territory,  thereby  gravely 
injuring  the  political  interests  of  the  Southerners,  whom 
they  believed  to  be  patriots. 

President  Lincoln's  Government  later  insisted  upon  carry- 
ing its  point,  and  I  do  not  remember  whether  or  not  Presi- 
dent Juarez  had  already  given  his  consent  to  the  passage  of 
the  troops  when  Congress  conferred  extraordinary — almost 
absolute — faculties  upon  him.  What  President  Juarez 
might  have  done  after  Congress  in  secret  session  had  denied 
permission  for  the  troops  to  pass  is  of  no  consequence,  if  the 
Southern  Governments'  conduct  be  conceded  to  have  been 
moral  and  just,  because  in  reality  they  were  belligerents,  and 
realities  take  precedence  over  juridical  fictions  and  over  the 
decrees  of  international  law  when  these  are  erroneously 
applied. 

PRESIDENT   DAVIS'S   RIGHT    AND    THE    BELLIGERENT    VILLA'S 

RIGHT 

Undoubtedly,  from  a  personal  point  of  view,  there  is  a 
vast  difference  between  the  honorable  President  of  the  Con- 
federacy and  the  bandit  Villa;  but  from  a  political  and  jurid- 
ical point  of  view  the  situation  is  identical.  President 
Davis  was  considered  a  rebel  by  President  Lincoln,  and  a 
traitor  to  his  country.  Carranza,  after  having  been  recog- 
nized by  President  Wilson,  considered  Villa  a  rebel  and  a 


ARMED   INTERVENTION   BEGINS       377 

traitor  to  his  country,  his  country  in  this  case  being  identi- 
fied with  the  revolution.  Jefferson  Davis  was  President  of 
the  Confederacy.  Villa  was  the  Supreme  Delegate  of  the 
Mexican  National  Convention,  which  had  established  a 
government,  and  he  exercised  the  functions  of  President  in 
Chihuahua  in  behalf  of  the  Convention  in  the  north.  Presi- 
dent Davis  was  never  recognized  as  a  belligerent  by  Presi- 
dent Juarez;  General  Villa  was  never  directly  recognized 
as  a  belligerent  by  President  Wilson,  but  he  was  expressly 
and  indirectly  recognized  as  such  when  President  Wilson 
asked  for  a  solemn  conference  with  General  Scott,  his  Chief 
of  Staff,  the  bandit  being  honored  at  this  time  by  the  pres- 
entation of  arms  by  the  United  States  soldiers.  Moreover, 
the  American  people  acclaimed  him  as  a  belligerent,  and  only 
by  sustaining  this  acclamation  can  they  save  themselves  from 
the  imputation  of  having  been  the  admirers  and  protectors 
of  a  bandit  who  has  ruthlessly  destroyed  a  civilized  nation, 
which  was  upon  the  most  friendly  terms  with  their  own 
Government. 

Once  President  Wilson  had  recognized  Senor  Carranza's 
government  he  declared  himself  his  ally.  This  is  proved  by 
indisputable  facts.  He  permitted  the  Carrancista  troops, 
provisions  and  munitions  to  pass  through  American  terri- 
tory in  order  to  succor  the  Carrancista  General  Calles  and 
his  four  thousand  men,  who  were  threatened  with  annihila- 
tion by  Villa  and  his  fifteen  thousand  troopers.  In  order 
to  help  Carranza,  he  prohibited  the  shipment  of  provisions 
to  Mexico  which  might  be  used  to  feed  the  Villa  forces;  he 
ordered  the  water  conduit  from  which  the  Villistas  drew 
their  supply  to  be  closed;  and,  finally,  he  directed  General 
Funston,  in  case  Mexican  shells  fell  upon  American  terri- 
tory, to  open  fire  upon  Villa.  General  Funston  said  pub- 
licly that  shells  had  fallen  on  American  territory  during  the 
first  Calles  and  Villa  encounter,  but  they  had  not  returned 
fire  because  it  was  clearly  evident  that  they  came  from 


378      WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT   MEXICO 

Calles's  guns,  who  relied  upon  the  support  of  American  arms 
to  vanquish  his  adversary.  President  Wilson  was  Sefior 
Carranza's  ally,  and  Villa — a  belligerent  in  the  sphere  of 
reality — would  have  been  justified,  from  the  standpoint  of 
equity,  in  declaring  war  against  the  United  States,  just  as 
President  Davis  would  have  been  justified  in  declaring  war 
against  Mexico  if  President  Juarez  had  acted  as  President 
Lincoln's  ally  during  the  War  of  Secession. 

I  should  be  the  last  to  deny  that  Villa  since  he  first  made 
his  appearance  in  Mexico  has  been  a  bandit  and  an  outlaw, 
but  his  attack  upon  Columbus  cannot  be  qualified  as  the  act 
of  a  bandit.  For  a  force  of  two  or  three  hundred  men  to 
attack  a  town  defended  by  six  hundred  and  fifty  American 
soldiers,  well  equipped,  well  officered  and  well  armed,  can 
hardly  be  called  brigandage.  If  a  pirate  in  a  fragile  canoe 
were  to  attack  an  English  armored  cruiser  in  mid-ocean  it 
could  not  be  classed  as  piracy,  but  as  the  act  of  a  reckless 
fighter  or  of  a  madman.  Villa's  motive  in  attacking  Colum- 
bus was  to  take  vengeance  on  Wilson  and  Carranza,  and  to 
bring  down  upon  both  the  wrath  of  the  American  people, 
who  had  been  so  outrageously  affronted Jby  his  attack.  He 
wished  especially  to  wreak  vengeance  on  Carranza,  who,  he 
hoped,  would  be  crushed  by  the  military  power  of  the 
United  States.  Undoubtedly  Villa's  action  is  to  be  classified 
as  high  treason  as  well  as  low  treason;  but  just  as  a  revolu- 
tion is  a  revolution,  so  Villa  is  Villa,  and  it  is  quite  natural 
that  he  should  have  retaliated  like  a  wild  beast  and  not  like 
a  patriot,  when  he  realized  that  he  was  being  annihilated  by 
the  Wilson-Carranza  alliance. 

Villa's  first  impulse  when  he  heard  that  President  Wilson 
had  recognized  the  Carranza  Government  was  to  concen- 
trate his  forces,  approximately  thirty  thousand  men,  to  fling 
them  against  the  American  frontier  towns,  massacre  the  in- 
habitants and  reduce  the  buildings  to  ashes.  Some  of  his 
better  educated  and  more  conservative  followers  were  able 


ARMED    INTERVENTION    BEGINS        379 

to  dissuade  him  from  carrying  out  this  program,  convincing 
him  that  he  would  gain  more  by  surprising  the  Carranza 
troops  stationed  in  Sonora,  because  the  chances  of  routing 
them  completely  were  in  his  favor,  as  Carranza  was  not  in 
a  position  to  give  them  any  aid.  The  permission  granted  by 
President  Wilson  for  Carrancista  troops  to  cross  American 
territory  to  relieve  General  Calles,  who  was  hemmed  in  at 
Agua  Prieta,  was  the  culminating  blow,  and  Villa  decided 
to  carry  out  his  plan  of  vengeance  by  attacking  Columbus. 

AN    IMPARTIAL    EXPOSITION    OF    THE    CASE 

The  Mexican  question  in  its  final  stage  must  be  examined 
with  calmness,  reasoned  out  intelligently  and  settled  with 
justice.  Patriotism  when  it  is  carried  to  the  extreme  of  pas- 
sion is  always  inimical  to  truth,  and  its  conclusions  are  re- 
jected in  judgments  that  are  based  on  learning  and  morality. 

From  the  moment  that  Villa  accomplished  the  attack  on 
Columbus  he  ranked,  in  the  eyes  of  the  United  States  Gov- 
ernment and  those  of  the  American  people,  as  a  bandit,  the 
leader  of  a  band  of  bandits  as  infamous  as  himself. 

I  have  read  with  regret  the  published  statements  of  cul- 
tured Mexicans  to  the  effect  that  Villa's  attack  cannot  com- 
promise Mexico  in  the  slightest  degree.  It  is  an  accepted 
and  absolutely  unimpeachable  principle  of  international  law: 
"que  toute  communaute  politique  organisee  assume  la  re- 
sponsabilite  des  acts  des  ses  membres  a  1'egard  des  autres 
Etats,  si,  sur  une  plainte  a  elle  adressee,  elle  ne  contraint 
pas  les  auteurs  de  1'offense  a  donner  satisfaction  a  1'Etat 
lese.  Un  Etat  ne  peut  exiger  de  reparation  de  la  part  d'un 
sujet  d'un  autre  Etat  qu'en  s'adressant  au  gouvernement  de 
la  nation  dont  1'offenseur  est  membre.  S'il  y  a  refus,  1'Etat 
assume  la  responsabilite  des  actes  de  son  sujet."  x 

An  extradition  treaty  was  in  force  between  Mexico  and 

1  H.  Bonfils,  Droit  International,  p.  651. 


380      WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT   MEXICO 

the  United  States  at  the  time  the  attack  upon  Columbus  took 
place.  Article  IV  of  this  treaty  says:  "Neither  one  of  the 
contracting  parties  shall  be  obliged  in  virtue  of  this  agree- 
ment to  hand  over  its  own  citizens,  but  the  Executive  of 
either  nation  shall  be  endowed  with  the  faculty  of  turning 
them  over  if  in  his  opinion  it  be  deemed  expedient." 

In  virtue  of  this  treaty  Carranza  possessed  the  right  to 
refuse  to  hand  Villa  and  his  followers  over  to  the  United 
States;  but  he  was  obliged  to  pursue,  capture  and  punish 
them  in  conformity  with  the  Mexican  penal  laws.  The 
United  States  Government  had  the  right  to  set  a  time  for 
Carranza  to  capture  and  punish  the  culprits,  and  if  he  failed 
to  do  so,  for  any  reason  whatsoever,  the  United  States  Gov- 
ernment had  the  right  to  declare  war  against  Mexico  in 
order  to  mete  out  justice  with  its  own  hand,  or  to  decree 
some  act  of  reprisal  against  the  Mexican  Government. 

President  Wilson  acted  with  regard  to  the  existing  extra- 
dition treaty  just  as  Germany  did  with  regard  to  the  treaty 
guaranteeing  the  neutrality  of  Belgium  to  which  it  had 
affixed  its  signature — declared  it  a  "scrap  of  paper,"  and 
proceeded  forcibly  against  Mexico.  The  President  of  the 
United  States  began  by  carrying  out  against  Mexico  the  act 
of  reprisal  to  which  the  American  nation  undoubtedly  would 
have  been  entitled  if  the  Mexican  Government  had  not 
given  the  satisfaction  demanded  in  the  time  agreed  upon  by 
both  nations,  or  in  that  stipulated  by  the  United  States. 

By  proceeding  so  ruthlessly  against  Mexico  before  he  was 
justified  in  doing  so,  President  Wilson  did  not  act  in  bad 
faith,  or  in  a  spirit  of  aggression  against  the  Mexican  peo- 
ple or  their  Government.  On  the  contrary,  not  wishing  to 
go  to  war,  he  aimed  only  at  calming  the  popular  agitation 
which  already  appeared  violent  enough  to  force  the  White 
House  to  declare  war  upon  Mexico  without  further  delay. 

At  dawn,  on  March  9,  1916,  the  ex-military  genius,  Fran- 
cisco Villa,  attacked  the  town  of  Columbus,  and  the  next 


ARMED   INTERVENTION   BEGINS       381 

day  President  Wilson's  secretary  made  the  following  official 
announcement:  "An  adequate  force  will  be  sent  at  once  to 
pursue  Villa.  The  sole  object  of  the  expedition  will  be  to 
capture  him  and  put  an  end  to  further  raids.  This  can 
and  will  be  done  with  the  friendly  assistance  of  the  consti- 
tuted Mexican  authorities,  and  with  scrupulous  respect  for 
the  sovereignty  of  that  Republic." 

From  this,  then,  it  will  be  seen  that  President  Wilson 
was  responsible  for  the  statement  that  the  force  that  was  to 
be  sent  into  Mexican  territory  in  pursuit  of  Villa  would 
have  the  friendly  assistance  of  the  constituted  Mexican  au- 
thorities, and  would  be  carried  out  with  scrupulous  respect 
for  the  sovereignty  of  the  Mexican  Republic. 

Was  it  not  rash,  even  to  the  point  of  temerity,  for  Presi- 
dent Wilson  to  give  assurance  that  the  American  military 
expedition  could  count  upon  the  friendly  cooperation  of  the 
constituted  Mexican  authorities,  when  its  mission  was  an 
act  of  reprisal  that  could  not  be  considered  otherwise  than 
in  the  nature  of  an  affront  by  the  nation  against  whom  it 
was  being  carried  out? 


THE    PATRIOTISM    OF   THE    CONSTITUTIONALISTS 

If  President  Wilson  has  formed  a  low  estimate  of  the 
patriotism  of  the  Constitutionalists,  undoubtedly,  he  cannot 
be  said  to  have  acted  with  equal  rashness. 

In  August,  1913,  President  Wilson's  personal  representa- 
tive, Mr.  Lind,  presented  an  insulting  note  to  the  Mexican 
Government  of  which  General  Huerta  was  then  the  head. 
The  latter  was  commanded  by  the  White  House  to  sus- 
pend hostilities  at  once,  to  resign  the  provisional  presidency, 
to  arrange  for  a  presidential  election  and  to  refrain  from 
taking  part  himself  as  a  candidate.  If  in  any  country  of 
recognized  patriotism — take  Spain  for  example — the  Presi- 
dent of  the  United  States  had  ordered  Alfonso  XIII  to 


38a      WHOLE   TRUTH    ABOUT    MEXICO 

renounce  the  throne,  to  arrange  for  republican  elections,  and 
to  refrain  from  taking  any  part  in  them  as  a  candidate,  even 
the  street  whelps  would  have  protested  against  the  insult 
offered,  not  only  to  the  person  of  the  king,  but  to  the  sover- 
eignty, independence  and  dignity  of  the  Spanish  nation.  But 
when  this  occurred  in  Mexico,  the  Constitutionalists,  both 
by  word  of  mouth  and  in  writing,  publicly  applauded  Mr. 
Wilson,  conferred  upon  him  the  title  of  "Doctor  Inslgne" 
(Distinguished  Doctor),  and  protector  of  Mexican  liberties 
and  of  the  revolution  that  was  destined  to  save  the  poor. 
It  was  considered  that  Carranza's  diplomatic  agent  at  Wash- 
ington had  played  the  part  of  a  consummate  patriot  in  the 
negotiations  to  further  the  cause  of  Mexican  democracy. 

Later  events  were  even  more  deplorable.  In  April,  1914, 
without  any  motive  to  justify  an  invasion  of  Mexican  terri- 
tory by  land  and  sea,  President  Wilson  decreed  the  Vera 
Cruz  expedition.  His  sole  object  was  to  further  the  revolu- 
tionary cause  by  weakening  Huerta's  position.  This  invasion 
was  approved  by  the  pro-Yankee  patriots,  and  even  Carranza 
retreated  from  his  patriotic  attitude  of  protest  when  Villa 
threatened  him  if  he  did  not  accept  the  armed  intervention 
of  the  United  States.  Consul  Carothers  made  this  state- 
ment, and  it  is  corroborated  by  Mr.  Bell  in  his  book  The 
Political  Shame  of  Mexico. 

A  talented  writer  who  is  one  of  Senor  Carranza's  sincere 
sympathizers  has  written  the  following:  "The  events  to 
which  I  refer  took  place  previous  to  the  occupation  of  Vera 
Cruz  by  the  Yankee  forces.  With  regard  to  the  latter, 
we  regret  that  President  Wilson,  notwithstanding  possible 
good  intentions  (confirmed  perhaps  by  more  recent  acts), 
should  have  embarked  upon  a  mistaken,  bloody  and  useless 
mission,  which  involves — no  matter  from  what  point  of  view 
one  considers  it — a  humiliation  for  Mexico.  We  regret 
that  Victoriano  Huerta,  once  the  conflict  was  provoked, 
should  not  have  known  how  to  find  in  the  midst  of  all  his 


ARMED    INTERVENTION    BEGINS       383 

vices  a  remnant  of  dignity  and  decorum  which  would  have 
urged  him  to  offer  a  substantial  resistance.  We  regret  that 
Venustiano  Carranza,  always  blameless  in  his  relations  with 
the  United  States,  always  tenacious — although  blinded  at 
times — should  not  have  maintained  his  dignified  attitude  of 
energetic  protest  which  he  frankly  outlined  in  his  ultimatum 
to  President  Wilson."  l 

No  one  can  understand  why,  according  to  these  politicians, 
patriotism  should  impose  on  the  Mexicans  the  duty  of  shed- 
ding the  last  drop  of  their  blood  in  defense  of  their  national 
sovereignty  and  territory  when  an  American  armed  force 
occupies  a  section  of  the  state  of  Chihuahua;  and  that,  when 
an  American  armed  force  occupied  the  city  of  Vera  Cruz, 
with  a  previous  heroic  shedding  of  Mexican  blood,  President 
Wilson  should  be  acclaimed  the  benefactor  of  Mexico  and 
the  protector  of  its  liberties  and  independence.  This  rather 
startling  phenomenon  can  be  explained  by  the  fact  that 
politicians  in  almost  all  of  the  Latin-American  nations  take 
advantage  of  the  docility  and  credulity  of  the  masses  over 
whom  they  tyrannize.  So  far  as  patriotic  enthusiasm  is 
concerned  they  can  mould  them  at  will.  When  an  Ameri- 
can armed  force  invades  a  Latin-American  country  for  the 
purpose  of  overthrowing  the  established  government,  the 
revolutionists,  if  the  invading  army  supports  their  cause, 
preach  the  doctrine  that  nothing  is  more  patriotic  or  respect- 
ful to  national  sovereignty  than  the  intervention  of  the 
Yankees.  But  when  these  traitors  get  control  of  the  supreme 
power  they  do  not  hesitate  to  declare  that  nothing  is  more 
reprehensible  or  more  offensive  to  national  honor  than  a 
Yankee  invasion,  when  this  is  not  undertaken  to  further  the 
interests  of  the  established  government,  which  owes  its 
triumph  to  the  intervention  of  this  very  same  hateful  Yankee 
army.  Senor  Guzman,  who  is  neither  a  reactionary,  a  cleri- 
cal, or  a  Cientifico,  says:  "When  Carranza,  the  chief  of 

1  Martin  Luis  Guzman,  La  querella  de  Mexico,  p.  69. 


384      WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT   MEXICO 

the  revolutionary  faction,  asks  the  United  States  Govern- 
ment to  recognize  him  as  the  President  of  the  Republic  of 
Mexico,  he  does  nothing  but  pay  homage  to  a  very  old  politi- 
cal truth  recognized  in  Mexico;  that  is:  No  political  party 
in  Mexico  possesses  of  itself  the  inherent  strength  to  domi- 
nate the  situation;  its  stability  and  strength  depend  upon 
the  support  of  a  foreign  power.  .  .  .  The  recent  Huerta 
case  is  conclusive  proof  of  this.  Bloated  with  power,  in- 
undated with  wealth,  and  above  all,  not  troubled  by  con- 
scientious scruples  as  to  the  means  employed  to  obtain  results, 
he,  nevertheless,  fell.  One  word  from  Woodrow  Wilson, 
one  "No"  from  the  President  of  a  foreign  nation  decided 
Huerta's  fate  and  the  destinies  of  Mexico.  All  that  he 
needed  to  establish  him  in  power  was  the  recognition  of  the 
Yankee.  Villa  and  Carranza  had  no  other  help."  1 

Senor  Guzman's  observations,  written  in  1915,  tally  ex- 
actly with  the  declarations  of  high  officials  of  the  United 
States  Department  of  State,  published  on  June  21,  1916. 
They  evince  surprise  at  Carranza's  conduct,  which  they  char- 
acterize as  rebellion,  since  he  owes  his  triumph  and  his  post 
as  First  Chief  to  them.  The  press  in  the  United  States,  with- 
out exception,  comments  upon  the  sudden  development  by 
the  Constitutionalists  of  such  delicate  patriotic  susceptibilities, 
when  heretofore,  from  March,  1913,  to  October  9,  1915, 
when  President  Wilson  recognized  the  de  facto  Government 
— much  to  the  surprise  of  the  civilized  world — they  had 
done  nothing  but  wipe  up  the  floors  of  the  National  Capitol 
at  Washington  in  their  servile  homage  to  the  powers  that  be. 

In  1 86 1,  when  the  War  of  Secession  broke  out  in  the 
United  States,  France  and  England  offered  to  act  as  media- 
tors between  the  Unionists  and  Secessionists.  President 
Lincoln  and  his  eminent  Secretary  of  State,  Mr.  Seward, 
rejected  the  offer  indignantly,  and  gave  Mr.  Dayton  definite 
instructions  that  he  was  not  to  accept  offers  of  mediation 

1  Martin  Luis  Guzman,  La  querclla  de  Mexico,  pp.  58,  59. 


ARMED    INTERVENTION    BEGINS       385 

from  any  foreign  government,  adding,  that  the  United  States 
Government  would  consider  as  a  grave  offense  any  meddling 
on  the  part  of  any  foreign  power  in  the  internal  affairs  of 
the  United  States.  M.  Billault,  Napoleon  Third's  un- 
accredited Minister,  informed  the  Diplomatic  Corps  that  Mr. 
Dayton  had  rejected  all  idea  of  mediation  as  contrary  to 
the  dignity  and  sovereignty  of  the  American  nation. 

President  Wilson,  although  he  was  well  aware  of  these 
precedents,  convoked  the  Conciliatory  Conference,  composed 
of  the  representatives  of  the  Governments  of  Argentine, 
Chile,  Brazil,  Uruguay,  Bolivia  and  Guatemala,  putting 
Mexico  on  a  level  with  Albania  by  presuming  to  decide 
which  of  the  bandits  who  figured  in  the  Mexican  revolution 
should  be  accorded  the  distinction  of  being  recognized  as 
the  head  of  a  de  facto  government  by  the  United  States. 
This  question  of  de  facto  governments  is  an  offense  to 
Mexico  because  under  international  law  only  the  States  is  a 
person,  and  there  are  no  de  facto,  constitutional,  legal, 
usurping  or  legitimate  States  according  to  international  law. 
The  President  of  the  United  States  has  the  right  to  recog- 
nize or  not  to  recognize  a  Mexican  government,  but  he  has 
not  the  right  to  call  its  origin,  its  nature  or  its  deficiencies 
into  question.  The  de  facto  feature  in  these  negotiations 
was  in  reality  an  offense  which  Carranza  mistook  for  an 
international  caress  or  an  enviable  mark  of  distinction.  Not 
one  of  the  Constitutionalist  representatives  invited  to  attend 
the  Conference  of  October,  1915,  refused  to  do  so  on  the 
ground  of  the  offense  offered  to  the  Mexican  nation  by  the 
purpose  of  the  gathering.  If  Sefior  Carranza  refused  to 
send  his  representative,  it  was  not  because  he  thought 
Mexico's  internal  political  affairs  should  not  be  aired  by 
foreign  governments,  but  because  he  did  not  want  to  face 
the  possibility  of  not  being  selected.  He,  however,  recog- 
nized the  Conference  because  he  pleaded  before  it  his  right 
to  be  recognized  as  the  head  of  the  de  facto  government, 


386      WHOLE   TRUTH    ABOUT    MEXICO 

in  virtue  of  the  fact  that  he  had  dominated  the  situation 
from  a  military  standpoint. 

The  Evening  Post,  in  its  issue  of  August  7,  1915,  said 
with  regard  to  the  work  of  the  Conference  of  Latin-Ameri- 
can representatives  gathered  together  by  the  Yankee  Sec- 
retary of  State  to  settle  the  affairs  of  Mexico:  "It  seems 
that  not  one  of  the  Latin-American  diplomatists  has  opposed 
this  part  of  the  plan  (the  recognition  of  Manuel  Vazquez 
Tagle,  ex-Minister  of  Justice  in  Madero's  Cabinet,  for 
President  of  Mexico),  even  if  some  of  the  ambassadors  think 
that  a  representative  of  the  Cientifico  group  should  be  chosen 
for  the  post.  They,  however,  were  informed,  so  it  is  said, 
that  President  Wilson  is  opposed  to  the  return  to  power  of 
the  Cientifico  or  conservative  interests  which  were  identified 
with  Porfirio  Diaz." 

President  Wilson's  determination  not  to  consent  to  the 
return  to  power  of  the  Cientifico  or  conservative  elements 
which  were  identified  with  the  Diaz  regime,  was  hailed  by 
the  Constitutionalists  as  another  master  stroke  of  Mexico's 
benefactor.  It  is  evident,  then,  that  it  did  not  appear  neces- 
sary at  that  time  to  the  followers  of  Constitutionalism  for 
the  Mexicans  to  shed  the  last  drop  of  their  blood,  or  even 
an  infinitesimal  part,  when  the  President  of  the  United  States 
was  grinding  Mexican  sovereignty  to  dust  with  the  heel 
of  his  boot.  It  must  be  remembered  that  notwithstanding 
the  fact  that  General  Funston  had  received  orders  to  fire 
against  the  Mexican  combatant  who  should,  intentionally  or 
unintentionally,  fire  shells  into  American  territory,  he  failed 
to  do  so  although  the  Carrancista  general,  Calles,  continued 
to  send  projectiles  across  the  boundary  line,  with  the  in- 
tention, no  doubt,  of  egging  on  the  American  commanders 
to  fire  upon  Villa.  Notwithstanding  the  official  report  made 
by  the  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  American  forces  at 
Douglas  concerning  the  firing,  General  Calles  was  not  prose- 
cuted as  a  traitor  to  his  country,  not  even  reprimanded.  On 


ARMED    INTERVENTION    BEGINS        387 

the  contrary,  his  conduct  was  fully  approved  and  he  was 
congratulated  by  Carranza. 

In  view  of  the  facts  presented,  President  Wilson  had 
reason  to  believe  that  the  punitive  expedition  against  Villa 
could  be  made  to  fit  within  the  limits  of  the  elastic  patriot- 
ism that  had  looked  with  favor  upon  the  punitive  expedition 
sent  against  Huerta  in  1914. 


A  HEROIC  STRUGGLE  TO  AVOID  A  STRUGGLE 

On  March  10,  1916,  Senor  Carranza  received  the  note 
sent  by  the  United  States  Government,  in  which  President 
Wilson  announced  that  in  order  to  punish  the  attack  on 
Columbus,  the  United  States  Government  was  resolved  to 
pursue  'Villa  and  his  bandit  followers  into  Mexican  territory 
and  to  exterminate  them.  If  Carranza  had  acted  with  the 
patriotism  exacted  by  Mexican  law,  and  in  compliance  with 
public  sentiment,  he  should  have  protested  against  the  im- 
mediate invasion  of  Mexico,  called  the  American  Govern- 
ment's attention  to  the  existing  extradition  treaty,  and  in- 
timated that  if  this  were  violated  diplomatic  relations  be- 
tween Mexico  and  the  United  States  would  be  severed  until 
such  time  as  the  will  of  the  Mexican  people  could  be  as- 
certained. 

Carranza  wished  to  avoid  war,  and  taking  into  considera- 
tion the  emphatic  and  somewhat  heated  statements  constantly 
reiterated  by  the  American  press  to  the  effect  that  the  puni- 
tive expedition  would  penetrate  into  Mexico  to  put  an  end 
to  Villa  whether  Carranza  wished  it  or  not,  he  decided  to 
accept  the  humiliating  situation,  and  covered  his  shameful 
condescension  by  proposing  a  reciprocal  treaty  with  the 
United  States,  which  was  to  permit  Mexican  troops  to  cross 
the  frontier  into  American  territory  in  pursuit  of  those 
bandits,  a  similar  privilege  to  cross  the  frontier  into  Mexico 
to  be  accorded  to  the  American  troops  if  the  Columbus  at- 


388      WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT   MEXICO 

tack  should  unfortunately  be  repeated  at  any  other  point 
along  the  frontier. 

The  diplomatic  heads  of  the  Mexican  Chancery  Office 
must  have  been  preoccupied,  as  there  was  no  element  of  rec- 
iprocity in  the  petition  of  the  new  treaty,  as  the  Mexican 
troops  were  to  have  permission  to  pursue  Villa  into  Ameri- 
can territory  where  he  was  not;  and  in  exchange  the  Ameri- 
can forces  could  only  penetrate  into  Mexico  in  case  an  at- 
tack similar  to  that  of  Columbus  were  repeated  at  any  other 
point  along  the  frontier. 

In  order  to  show  that  he  did  not  want  war  and  that  he 
did  not  wish  to  embarrass  Carranza,  President  Wilson  said 
to  him  in  his  telegram  of  March  I3th:  "  ...  in  order  to 
assure  peace  between  the  two  republics  and  to  preserve  order 
in  the  territory  adjacemt  to  the  border,  permission  is  granted 
with  pleasure  for  the  armed  forces  of  the  de  facto  Mexican 
Government  to  cross  the  international  boundary  line  in  pur- 
suit of  bands  of  armed  men  who  may  have  invaded  Mexico 
from  the  United  States,  committed  depredations  on  Mexican 
territory  and  then  escaped  to  the  United  States,  with  the 
understanding  that  the  same  privilege  be  granted  to  the 
United  States  military  forces  to  pursue  across  the  inter- 
national boundary  line  and  into  Mexican  territory  bands  of 
armed  men  who,  coming  from  Mexico,  may  have  penetrated 
into  American  territory,  committed  depredations  on  Ameri- 
can soil  and  then  escaped  into  Mexico.  The  United  States 
Government  understands  that  in  view  of  its  acceptance 
of  this  reciprocal  arrangement,  proposed  by  the  de  facto 
Government,  said  arrangement  is  considered  complete  and 
in  force,  and  the  reciprocal  privileges  to  which  it  refers  can 
consequently  be  exercised  by  either  one  of  the  Governments 
without  the  necessity  of  entering  into  any  new  arrangement." 

This  treaty  of  reciprocity  entered  into  without  any  of  the 
formalities  exacted  by  international  law  was  designed  to 
cover  the  humiliation  which  a  weak  nation  like  Mexico  re- 


ARMED    INTERVENTION    BEGINS        389 

ceived  through  the  punitive  expedition  which,  as  I  have 
already  said,  was  an  act  of  reprisal  employed  by  the  United 
States  to  enable  it  to  avoid  obliging  Mexico  to  accept  the 
alternative  of  war.  This  reciprocal  treaty  possessed  the  de- 
fect that  for  the  United  States  the  rights  were  effective  and 
the  obligations  hypothetical,  whereas,  for  the  de  facto 
Government  the  rights  were  hypothetical  and  the  obligations 
effective. 

Sefior  Carranza  proved  himself  weak  in  consenting  to  the 
cooperation  of  the  Mexican  military  forces  in  the  punitive 
expedition.  The  note  of  March  I4th,  addressed  by  the 
White  House  to  Carranza,  says:  "It  is  a  source  of  sincere 
satisfaction  to  the  United  States  Government  that  the  de 
facto  Mexican  Government  has  manifested  such  a  cordial 
and  friendly  spirit  of  cooperation  in  the  efforts  of  the  United 
States  authorities  to  apprehend  and  punish  the  band  of  ma- 
rauders. ..." 

Senor  Jacinto  Lopez,  the  distinguished  Central  American 
writer,  in  a  study  relative  to  the  situation  which  he  pub- 
lished in  a  Cuban  newspaper  devoted  to  social  sciences,  says: 
"There  was,  then,  a  perfect  understanding  between  the  two 
governments  just  previous  to  the  opening  of  the  American 
campaign  in  Mexican  territory  against  Villa.  .  .  .  The 
United  States  forces,  then,  were  in  Mexico  with  the  sanction 
of  the  Mexican  Government."  Senor  Lopez  does  not 
breathe  the  vitiated  atmosphere  inhaled  as  a  general  thing  by 
all  Mexicans  at  present,  and  I  quote  his  words  to  establish 
a  fact  which  no  one  can  deny,  that  Don  Venustiano  Carranza 
openly  accepted  the  punitive  expedition,  with  the  accompany- 
ing aggravating  circumstance  of  having  consented  to  the 
Constitutionalist  army  acting  as  the  guide,  friend,  ally, 
and,  as  an  El  Paso  newspaper  said,  procurer  for  the  Amer- 
ican army  in  the  violation  of  the  fatherland. 

Senor  Lopez  does  not  handle  Senor  Carranza  quite  so 
roughly  in  judging  his  action  concerning  the  proposition 


390      WHOLE   TRUTH    ABOUT    MEXICO 

made  by  the  de  facto  Government  to  the  White  House  with 
regard  to  the  treaty  of  reciprocity,  as  he  says:  "It  is  easy 
to  understand  the  object  of  this  proposition,  which  is  nothing 
more  than  a  resort,  an  expedient — undoubtedly  the  last 
available  one — by  which  the  situation  can  be  met  with  some 
semblance  of  decorum,  and  to  soften  as  much  as  possible  the 
resentment  of  national  pride." 


INDECOROUS    PROCEEDINGS 

Sefior  Carranza  quite  justly  estimated  that  the  advent  of 
the  punitive  expedition  would  naturally  arouse  a  sentiment 
of  indignation  in  the  public  mind  that  would  be  dangerous 
to  the  existence  of  the  de  facto  Government.  To  obviate 
this  catastrophe  the  Carrancista  press  announced,  for  the 
benefit  of  the  Mexican  public,  that  a  treaty,  drawn  up  and 
signed  at  Washington  in  1882,  existed  between  the  Ameri- 
can and  Mexican  Governments  which  authorized  Carranza 
to  receive  the  punitive  expedition  with  open  arms. 

This  treaty  referred  to  the  pursuit  of  parties  of  savages, 
that  is,  Indians,  and  Villa,  however  much  of  a  savage 
he  may  be  in  a  figurative  sense,  cannot  juridically  be 
classed  in  this  category.  Admitting,  however,  for  the  sake 
of  argument,  that  a  treaty  applicable  to  Indian  raids 
could  be  made  to  cover  an  attack  such  as  that  made  upon 
Columbus,  this  treaty  had  been  extinct  for  twenty  years. 
Senor  Federico  Gamtoa,  Mexican  ex-Minister  to  Guate- 
mala and  Belgium  and  Secretary  of  Foreign  Relations  in 
Huerta's  Cabinet,  writes  the  following  with  regard  to  this 
subject  in  La  Reforma  Social:  ".  .  .  it  is  to  be  borne  in 
mind  that  Article  VIII  of  that  agreement  (that  of  1882), 
entered  into  for  a  period  of  two  years,  was  modified  on 
September  2ist,  of  the  same  year  (1882),  and  renewed  on 
two  other  occasions,  June  28,  1882,  and  October  16,  1885. 
The  first  treaty  was  replaced  by  that  of  June  25,  1890,  which 


ARMED    INTERVENTION    BEGINS        391 

was  renewed  on  November  25,  1892,  and  finally  replaced 
by  the  agreement  of  June  4,  1896.  This  was  provisional 
and  valid  only  until  such  time  as  the  band  headed  by  the 
Apache  Kid  was  exterminated,  always  with  the  proviso  that 
the  pursuit  should  not  extend  over  a  period  longer  than  one 
year."  It  follows,  then,  that  the  de  facto  Government  au- 
thorized the  punitive  expedition  in  virtue  of  a  treaty  which 
was  in  no  sense  applicable  to  the  case,  and  which  possessed 
the  additional  disadvantage  of  having  been  extinct  for 
twenty  years,  and  that  Senor  Carranza  attempted  with  this 
subterfuge  to  fool  the  nation. 

Fearing  that  the  Mexican  public  might  become  aware  of 
the  trick  played  upon  it,  the  Carrancista  politicians  resolved, 
in  order  to  put  an  end  to  the  punitive  expedition,  to  have 
recourse  to  another  ruse — produce  Villa's  corpse.  This 
may  have  been  any  corpse,  or  it  may  have  been  the  body  of 
a  man  resembling  Villa,  converted  into  a  corpse  to  fill  the  re- 
quirements of  the  occasion.  When  the  authorized  representa- 
tives of  Carrancism  gave  out  in  Mexico,  in  El  Paso  and 
in  Washington  that  the  body  of  Villa  had  been  found,  the 
skepticism  evinced  on  all  sides  was  so  great  that  the  "manu- 
facturers of  opportune  corpses"  were  rather  taken  aback, 
and  resolved  to  abandon  their  fraudulent  scheme.  The  best 
proof  that  this  was  the  invention  of  clever  politicians  is  the 
fact  that  the  de  facto  Government  did  not  attempt  to  sus- 
tain the  contention  that  the  body  of  Villa  had  been  found, 
as  it  naturally  would  have  done  if  its  claim  could  have 
been  substantiated,  as  it  would  have  solved  the  difficulty 
immediately  and  saved  the  situation. 

All  these  facts  prove  the  determination  of  the  de  facto 
Government  to  keep  out  of  war  at  any  cost.  It  may  be  by 
drawing  up  reciprocal  treaties;  by  ingratiating  itself  with 
President  Wilson;  by  permitting  the  Carrancista  troops  to 
cooperate  in  the  punitive  expedition ;  by  giving  the  impres- 
sion that  a  treaty  covering  the  pursuit  of  Indian  raiders 


392      WHOLE   TRUTH    ABOUT    MEXICO 

existed,  thus  identifying  Villa  with  an  Apache  Indian;  by 
opportunely  manufacturing  a  corpse,  said  to  be  the  body  of 
the  ex-military  genius  of  the  revolution;  by  sending  notes 
to  Washington  similar  to  that  of  April  I2th,  which  closed 
with  a  mild,  supplicatory  clause  in  which  President  Wilson 
is  told  that  the  time  has  come  to  negotiate  for  the  retire- 
ment of  the  American  forces;  by  dispatching  a  so-called 
forcible  note  which  instead  of  concluding  with  an  ultimatum 
closes  by  informing  Washington  that  it  is  merely  a  continua- 
tion of  the  controversy  between  the  two  governments. 

President  Wilson  on  his  side  has  made  superhuman  efforts 
to  avoid  a  rupture  with  the  de  facto  Government,  and  only 
the  pressure  brought  to  bear  upon  him  by  the  press  and  the 
influential  politicians  who  voice  the  sentiments  of  the  ma- 
jority of  the  American  people,  who  disapprove  of  his  policy, 
has  had  the  power  to  bring  him  to  the  point  of  unsheathing 
his  sword  and  challenging  his  former  proteges,  the  Mex- 
ican revolutionists. 


A    DISPASSIONATE    JUDGMENT    OF    THE    CASE 

What  in  reality  is  the  cause  of  the  threatened  war  be- 
tween Mexico  and  the  United  States  on  this  I5th  day  of 
June,  1916?  The  punitive  expedition?  It  is  clear  to  the 
world  that  Senor  Carranza  takes  this  view.  In  the  so-called 
forcible  notes  sent  by  the  de  facto  Mexican  Government 
reference  is  made  only  to  the  affront  offered  to  the  nation 
by  the  continued  presence  of  the  American  forces  in  Mex- 
ican territory,  since  the  Mexican  Government  is  in  a  posi- 
tion to  give  the  United  States  sufficient  guarantees  that  its 
boundaries  shall  not  again  be  violated  by  Mexican  bandits. 

It  is  true  that  Carranza  is  in  a  position  actually  to  give 
these  guarantees?  Evidently  not.  Between  May  5  and 
June  21,  1916,  Glen  Springs,  Big  Bent,  Coleman's  Ranch, 
the  San  Ignacio,  San  Benito  (Texas)  and  Mercedes  camps 


ARMED    INTERVENTION    BEGINS        393 

have  been  raided  by  bandits  from  across  the  border.  The 
world  has  seen  that  neither  the  American  nor  the  Car- 
rancista  forces  are  able  to  prevent  the  accomplishment  of 
Villa's  purpose,  the  annihilation  of  Carranza  by  Wilson, 
brought  about  by  means  of  repeated  attacks  which  will  in- 
flame the  American  public  to  the  point  of  forcing  Wilson 
to  defend  the  rights  and  honor  of  the  United  States. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  is  absurd  to  expect  the  United 
States  to  sacrifice  its  indisputable,  sacred  and  inalienable 
right  to  protect  its  border  upon  the  altar  of  Villista  brigand- 
age, in  order  to  respect  Mexican  sovereignty  in  a  case  in 
which  international  law  gives  them  the  right  not  to  respect 
it.  According  to  international  law,  whatever  may  be  Car- 
ranza's  reasons  for  not  living  up  to  his  international  obliga- 
tions, the  United  States  has  the  right  to  declare  war  against 
Mexico  or  to  have  recourse  to  an  act  of  reprisal  in  order  to 
force  the  de  facto  Government  to  give  complete  satisfaction 
to  the  outraged  American  public. 

According  to  international  law,  Mexico  has  the  indis- 
putable right  on  her  own  account  to  reply  to  war  with  war, 
and  not  to  tolerate  an  act  of  reprisal  such  as  the  sending  of 
the  punitive  expedition.  There  is,  then,  a  conflict  of  rights 
between  the  two  nations,  not  a  clash  between  Mexican  right 
and  the  insolent  and  intolerable  brutality  of  the  United 
States. 

MEDIATION 

In  a  conflict  where  equal  rights  are  at  stake  mediation 
should  be  resorted  to  as  the  logical  and  patriotic  means  of 
avoiding  a  devastating  war.  Unfortunately  mediation  is 
not  possible.  Villism  exists  and  will  continue  to  exist  for 
some  time  to  come.  It  represents,  once  its  few  intellectual 
and  orderly  elements  have  been  nullified  or  separated  from 
it,  the  victorious  brigandage  which,  protected  by  the  Presi- 


394      WHOLE   TRUTH   ABOUT   MEXICO 

dent  of  the  United  States,  was  the  force  that  actually  over- 
threw Huerta.  Villism  was  the  real  vivifying  principle  of 
the  revolution  of  1913.  Carrancism  has  been  the  outcome  of 
a  social  and  political  reaction  among  the  more  intelligent 
bandits  who,  at  last,  understood  that  it  was  not  possible  in 
1916,  in  the  midst  of  civilization,  to  govern  according  to  pre- 
historic methods  which  were  viewed  with  horror  and  dis- 
gust by  civilized  nations. 

The  trouble  between  Mexico  and  the  United  States  is  not 
one  of  the  moment  only;  it  will  be  continual  as  its  origin 
lies  in  the  hatred  of  the  Villistas  for  the  Carrancistas,  and 
so  long  as  the  former  are  in  the  field  and  Carranza  cannot 
maintain  at  least  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  well  dis- 
ciplined soldiers  in  the  north  to  protect  the  border  and  grad- 
ually exterminate  the  Villistas,  the  anti-Carrancista  faction 
will  continue  to  slap  the  colossus  of  the  north  in  the  face, 
subject  him  to  the  ridicule  of  the  world,  until  it  forces  him 
to  declare  war  or  completely  to  sacrifice  his  honor. 

The  "mediators"  should  not  treat  with  Wilson  and  Car- 
ranza, but  with  Villa  and  Carranza  in  an  attempt  to  bring 
about  a  reconciliation  between  them.  However,  as  there  is 
no  discipline  in  the  Villista  bands,  any  northern  bandit  with 
anti-Carrancista  tendencies  could  repeat  the  Columbus  inci- 
dent on  his  own  account  any  time  it  occurs  to  him.  The 
punitive  expedition  had  for  its  present  and  future  object  the 
prevention  of  future  raids  into  American  territory.  What 
can  the  mediators  do  to  guarantee  to  the  United  States  that 
there  will  be  no  further  incursions  into  her  territory?  In 
my  estimation  nothing,  absolutely  nothing. 

AN  UNEXPECTED  SOLUTION 

The  unexpected  turn  that  affairs  have  taken  and  the  prob- 
able solution  of  the  situation  since  the  last  pages  of  this  book 
were  written  (July  16,  1916),  and  as  it  goes  to  press, 


ARMED    INTERVENTION    BEGINS        395 

have  been  a  surprise  to  me.  According  to  international  law 
and  common  sense  war  between  Mexico  and  the  United 
States  began  on  June  2ist  with  the  Carrizal  fight,  which 
resulted  adversely  for  the  Americans.  The  failure  of  the 
mobilization  of  the  militia  obliged  President  Wilson  to  seek 
peace  from  Carranza,  which  he  did  through  his  speech  at  the 
Press  Club  banquet.  Carranza  hastened  to  accede  to  the  re- 
quest, and  it  appears  that  the  peace  negotiations  are  under 
way  and  that  the  discussion  will  be  long  drawn  out.  There 
can  be  no  doubt  that  Mexico's  triumph  has  been  unqualified 
as  the  punitive  expedition  has  retired  from  Mexican  territory 
owing  to  the  pressure  brought  to  bear  by  Constitutionalist 
arms. 

The  solution  of  the  "Mexican  question"  by  means  of 
armed  intervention  has  been  rejected,  and  the  attitude  of  the 
American  people  indicates  that  they  are  resolved  that  under 
no  circumstances  whatsoever  shall  the  Mexican  difficulty  be 
settled  by  recourse  to  armed  intervention.  Unfortunately, 
President  Wilson,  instead  of  laying  aside  the  idea  of  con- 
trolling the  Mexican  Government,  appears  to  be  more  de- 
termined than  ever,  supported  by  the  military  power  of  the 
United  States,  to  impose  his  will  upon  the  Mexican  people 
through  means  which  he  believes  will  be  efficacious,  but 
which  are  absurd  to  those  who  know  the  sociology  of  the 
Mexican  people. 


